A week of legal argument in the David Bain case began on Monday in the High Court in Christchurch.
The hearing will include an application by Mr Bain's defence team to have five charges of murder dismissed.
All discussions in the hearing this week are suppressed because they deal with matters involving witnesses and evidence.
Justice Panckhurst will also hear an application to stay the proceedings based on new evidence obtained by the defence. This will be heard on Tuesday becuase Mr Bain's principal counsel is not available on Monday.
If that application is successful, a retrial will not proceed. At present it is scheduled to begin on 2 March and will take at least three months.
Mr Bain is accused of murdering his parents and three siblings at the family home in 1994. He maintains he did not commit the crimes.
He has served 12 years of a life sentence, but has been on bail since May 2007 after the Privy Council in London quashed the original convictions. A retrial was later ordered.
