Australia, June 30 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on May 30:

1. This is an appeal from a decision of the Administrative and Equal Opportunity Division (AEOD) of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT), refusing to make orders under ss 49(2) and 64 of the Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 (NSW) (NCAT Act) in AEOD proceedings concerning a complaint brought by Ms Seraphim under the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW) (ADA). In that complaint, Ms Seraphim alleges that she was sexually harassed, and later victimised, by Mr Houda during a placement with the law firm of which he is the principal, Lawyers Corp Pty Ltd.

2. Mr Houda and Lawyers Corp are the appellants in this appeal and the respondents in the AEOD proceedings concerning the ADA complaint. On 8 October 2024, Mr Houda made an interlocutory application asking the Tribunal to make orders limiting the dissemination and publication of a series of WhatsApp messages between Mr Houda and Ms Seraphim (the WhatsApp messages). Mr Houda said that he intended to rely on those messages (included in a bundle of documents comprising 300 pages) as evidence in his defence to the complaint.

3. In the hearing of the application for ss 49(2) and 64 orders (the Confidentiality Application), evidence was led that the case has such notoriety that a pseudonym order would not be effective. The Tribunal accepted this. Mr Houda contended that the WhatsApp messages would be so central to the case that it would not be possible to conduct the hearing in public and therefore an order should be made that the hearing be conducted in private under s 49(2) of the NCAT Act. In addition, Mr Houda urged the Tribunal to make certain non-disclosure and non-publication orders under s 64(1) of the NCAT Act. The Tribunal declined to make those orders.

4. Because this appeal relates to an interlocutory decision, leave to appeal is required to appeal the decision under s 80(2)(a) of the NCAT Act. The Appellants contend that the Tribunal's decision was wrong, that leave to appeal should be granted under s 80(2) of the NCAT Act, and their appeal should be allowed.

5. The respondent in this appeal, Ms Seraphim, opposes the grant of leave to appeal, contending that the arguments advanced in support of the appeal are fanciful, and that if leave to appeal were to be granted, the appeal should be dismissed. Nationwide News Pty Ltd, appearing with leave, opposes the leave application and the appeal on the same basis as the Respondent. Nationwide News endorsed the submissions made by Ms Seraphim.

NCAT's powers to close a hearing and make non-disclosure and non-publication orders

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/19761ec4941b064d38182e0e)

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