Principal Family Court Judge Laurence Ryan has asked the New Zealand Law Society's Family Law Section to communicate the following message to family law practitioners:

“There has been a significant increase in the volume of without notice applications filed late in the afternoon to the extent that it has become unmanageable for both the auditors and rostered Judges. To ensure there is adequate time for Judges to properly consider these urgent applications, it has been decided that the National e-Duty process will be changed as follows:

"From 15 December 2016, any without notice application that is not placed on the National e-Duty platform by 3:30pm will be dealt with in the morning of the following working day. Counsel and parties are encouraged to file without notice applications earlier in the day to ensure they are received, processed and placed onto the National e-Duty platform before 3.:0pm.

"There will no longer be a 'cut-off' time as such for filing applications. Rather, there will be no guarantee that proceedings filed later in the day will be considered by a Judge on the same day.”