Background
Slavica Lake brought an application for judicial review against Stuart Gordon Hermann, Wendy Janet Hermann and the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal. McLeod J delivered judgment in the substantive matter on 21 August 2026 in Lake v Hermann [2026] QSC 193.
The written reasons recorded an order dismissing the amended application for review, but described it as having been filed on 16 March 2026. Solicitors for the first and second respondents notified the Court that the amended application had in fact been filed on 5 March 2026. The applicant was copied into that correspondence.
The Court’s Holding
McLeod J held that the filing date in the earlier dismissal order was clearly a clerical mistake. The Court exercised its power under r 388(2) of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld) to correct the order.
The corrected order states: “The amended application for review filed 5 March 2026 is dismissed.” The Court made no order as to costs concerning the correction.
Key Takeaways
- The substantive dismissal of Lake’s amended judicial-review application remained unchanged.
- Rule 388(2) permitted correction of the erroneous filing date as a clerical mistake.
- No costs order was made for the correction application.
Why It Matters
The decision is a short application of the Queensland slip-rule power. It illustrates that the Court may correct an obvious clerical error in an order without revisiting the merits or altering the substantive outcome.
For practitioners, the case also underscores the importance of promptly identifying discrepancies between orders and the court record, particularly where a document’s filing date is stated in the operative order.