A band of at least 24 protesters arrested after violent clashes with police at an anti-Herzog rally have secured their day in court, but it will be a long wait.
The two-dozen activists are among the 29 people charged after a Sydney rally opposing the Israeli president's visit on February 9.
They want the accusations thrown out on the basis the legislation outlawing their protest, passed following the Bondi massacre, was struck down by NSW's Supreme Court in April.
But the wheels of justice are still turning as 24 defendants were given joint hearing dates in 2027.
Almost all of them have pleaded not guilty with a handful yet to enter pleas.
In Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday, a registrar, police sergeant and half a dozen solicitors wrestled with the logistics of such a large number of defendants being in the same hearing.
The protesters' lawyers argued joint proceedings were necessary because the cases were tied by common evidence of alleged police abuses.
"One of the relevant factors ... is whether any discrete case of police misconduct is merely an example of a wider pattern of misconduct and not an isolated misuse of power," barrister Felicity Graham argued on behalf of the group.
A witness list will likely feature NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon, other senior police officers, the protest's organisers, state ministers and MPs, Ms Graham said.
Police sergeant Adrian Walsh said the hearings should be separate because of the difficulty of securing a significant number of police witnesses.
"All those officers will have to be rostered on for however long the court decides," he said.
The registrar ruled the cases would be heard together, but recommended structuring the hearing based on the witnesses' schedules, prioritising whose testimony was relevant to the most defendants.
A five-day hearing in March 2027 will determine the issues the accused have in common, and which will be dealt with individually.
The outcome will inform a six-week summary trial in July for at least 24 defendants.
"We'll need a very big courtroom," Ms Graham said.
Defence lawyer Nick Hanna said he was eager for police to be put on the stand.
"(We have) some very pressing questions to ask some senior police officers as well as of course the officers who were present at the protest who engaged in ... excessive force," Mr Hanna told reporters outside court.
An independent probe is investigating incidents of alleged police misconduct described by dozens of demonstrators at the rally.
"It's not isolated, it's not exceptional, this is the kind of behaviour that happens every day," Sienna Hopper, who is accused of assaulting a police officer at the Herzog rally, told a gathering of pro-Palestine activists outside the court building.
