Frequently Asked Questions - COVID-19 (Coronavirus)

You should come to court if your case is listed for:

• hearing
• sentence
• the first date the case is listed
• reply to brief where a plea of guilty is to be entered or
• an application for an order under the Mental Health and Cognitive Impairment Forensic Provisions Act 2020 (NSW)

In other circumstances, you do not usually have to come to court if you have a lawyer. 

However, you must not come to court if you:  

• have COVID-19
• flu like symptoms or
• have been directed to self-isolate by NSW Health.

If you are legally represented, contact your lawyer to tell them you are sick. If you are not legally represented, you should contact the relevant court registry by phone or email.

Your lawyer or the registry will let you know whether other options are available for you to participate in the proceedings without having to come to court. 

While waiting for your case please: 

• wear a face mask 
• use the hand sanitiser provided
• follow the signs
• remember to practice good hygiene, and
• keep 1.5 metres distance between you and other people at the court wherever possible.

You are not currently required by a Public Health Order to wear a face mask in a Children's Court. 

However, wearing a face mask inside the court building and court room is strongly encouraged. 

In some situations, a judicial officer may require face masks to be worn in a courtroom.

If you want to listen or appear by video conference when your case is dealt with you should talk to your lawyer.  Arrangements can be made with the court registry for you to attend by phone or video if you can’t come to court.  

However, if you are not attending court, you should always be available to speak to your lawyer by phone on the day of court in case the lawyer needs to get more information from you.

If you don’t have a lawyer, you should contact to the court registry to ask about options to participate without coming to court. 

If you have a lawyer, you should speak to them about what happened in court. 

If you do not have a lawyer, you should contact the relevant court registry by phone or email and ask happened in court. Please make sure you contact the registry no later than the working day before your court date.

If you are a child or young person, your parents or carers should come with you.

If you are an adult, you are strongly encouraged to come by yourself where possible.

If you bring a support person to court, the judicial officer will need to give permission to allow them to go into the courtroom. 

You can email or call the Children's Court. The email address and telephone number for each court location can be found here.

The court will contact you by email, post, or telephone.

If you have a lawyer, the court will contact your lawyer first and your lawyer will pass on information to you. It is important they can get in contact with you so make sure you provide your current contact details and notify your lawyer of any changes to those details.

You will receive an automatic email reply from the court to let you know your email has been received.

Where a client wishes to attend court in person their legal practitioner is to appear in person except in exceptional circumstances and with leave of the court.

Legal practitioners should refer to the President’s Public Notices for up-to-date information on attendance requirements.

Please note that from 18 July 2022 all legal practitioners are to attend court in person unless leave has been granted to appear by video conference.

From 18 July 2022 all Dispute Resolution Conferences will be conducted in person unless the Children’s Registrar conducting the conference decides that the conference should be conducted by video conference.

Contact the Children’s Court conference coordinator at childrens-court-conference-co-ordinator@justice.nsw.gov.au of by phone on 8688 1471 if you have any questions.  

All defendants should contact either Legal Aid or the Aboriginal Legal Service as soon as you have been issued a court attendance notice by police.

• Legal Aid youth hotline - 1800 10 18 10
• Aboriginal Legal Service - 1800 765 767

Don’t wait until it is close to the court date. 

The lawyer will talk to you about any bail conditions or AVO conditions and can ask the court to change the conditions, if necessary, before the first court date.   

If you are the family member of a young person in custody you should contact Youth Justice on 1300 135 330.

You should obtain legal advice as soon as you receive advice that you a case is listed in the Children’s Court.  Legal Aid and the Aboriginal Legal Service can provide advice by phone or email.

You may be contacted by a Legal Aid duty lawyer once a new application is filed with the court. If you are not contacted by a duty lawyer prior to the court date, then you should call Law Access on 1300 888 529 and they will put you in contact with a lawyer who can help you

You can email your documents to the court.

It is important that you email your documents to the Children’s Court registry where your case is listed. If you can’t email your documents to the court, you can attend the registry in person.

The court will accept unsworn or unaffirmed documents for filing if it is not possible for the documents to be signed or witnessed.

Parties should be aware that if the party subsequently seeks to rely on the document in evidence the relevant document will need to be signed and witnessed prior to the hearing or attested to at the hearing.