- 18 A B A recently reminded litigants of the function of the first tier application for B leave to appeal as follows: C C “10. …… a first tier application before the matter is brought before the Court of Appeal serves an important function. Not only is this function valuable to this court, it should also be of value to the parties. The party applying for leave should obviously reflect on the arguability of his grounds if the lower court refuses leave. At the same time, the opposing party should also review the merit of the application in light of the contentions run at the first tier hearing. This should assist the parties in formulating and responding at the second tier stage if an application is made to the Court of Appeal for leave. In other words, this court expects the submissions advanced in the second tier level to be more concise and focused.” D E F G H I 34. Turning back to the arguments raised by counsel, Mr McCoy D E F G H I SC has argued that it cannot be disputed the issue before the court is a J K novel, developing one which involves a rapidly evolving area of the law. He has further reminded that I have described this as a “troubling grey J K area” in the Decision. He has submitted that the appeal should be heard L M in the interests of justice because important points of law arise in the context of developing and inconsistent decisions that have recently L M mushroomed in the common law world, and despite such jurisprudence N O the Decision is nevertheless a foray into virgin legal territory without any appellate guidance in local and other common law jurisdictions as to N O whether Autocomplete and Related Searches features are amenable to the P P tort of defamation. Q Q 35. R S Mr McCoy SC has reminded that the question of service out of jurisdiction goes to the fundamental matter of the court’s own jurisdiction, and appeal cases on such question abound in the law reports both in this jurisdiction and abroad. T R S He says the present case also touches on the question as to whether Yeung’s cause of action under the T U U V V