Long legal battle ahead for Kathy Jackson

A court case against former Health Services Union boss Kathy Jackson over allegations she stole almost $500,000 by passing off personal transactions as work expenses is set to drag into another year.

Jackson appeared in Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Tuesday charged with 70 theft and deception offences, supported by her partner, former Fair Work Commission vice-president Michael Lawler.

It's alleged Jackson misrepresented personal expenses as union expenses in a raft of individual transactions spanning from 2003 to 2011.

Jackson's legal team has been given more time to find missing documents, which it says show her union spending was legitimate.

Her lawyer, Philip Beazley, on Tuesday said some details linked to the HSU's records have come out in the royal commission into unions.

But it has been difficult tracking down hard copies of minutes from meetings, which he says show Jackson's use of funds had been approved.

"The way the union operated was payments were made on a credit card and later approved by a committee," Mr Beazley told the court.

"There used to be minutes of all these meetings - large boxes (of them).

"We know this from the royal commission, that there are a large number of boxes that no one knows exists."

The Sydney-based lawyer has also requested further details from investigators about all the individual transactions that Jackson is accused of carrying out.

Among the alleged transactions are payments to airlines and hotels in Hong Kong, Las Vegas and New York.

Jackson, who lives in NSW, will return to Melbourne Magistrates' Court on November 13 for a committal hearing that is expected to last four weeks.

The committal hearing will determine whether Jackson should stand trial, which means the court case may continue into 2018.