A Supreme Court judge has delivered a rare and costly rebuke to a legal team for "trolley-load litigation", an act that is widespread in courts but almost impossible to stop.

British Virgin Islands law firm, Michael Wilson & Partners, and its Sydney lawyers have been ordered to pay the cost of their opponents' trawling through a mountain of documents after they dumped 18 new folders of material on them midtrial, reports the Brisbane Times.

Justice Clifford Einstein said it was a clear example of "trolley-load litigation". That is, "the practice of a party in litigation with little or no notice to flood its opponent with materials, and then to insist that whilst its opponent is entitled to a period in which to endeavour to absorb the new materials, that period should be minuscule".

Trolley-load litigation widespread: court