Stephen Warne on professional negligence, regulation and discipline around the world

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Entries from April 2007

Kansas Supreme Court on the rule against direct communication with opponent's clients

April 29th, 2007 · No Comments

The Supreme Court of Kansas yesterday published a judgment — In the Matter of E. Thomas Pyle, III — which is interesting on a number of fronts. The first is that Pyle was disciplined for writing a letter which criticised an adverse disciplinary ruling against him. The second is that he was disciplined for failing [...]

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Tags: Discipline · Striking off · litigation ethics

Depression in lawyers: Australia and America

April 25th, 2007 · No Comments

Legal Blog Watch has sent these details spinning around America's computer savvy legal fraternity:
'Lawyers Down Under Also Down
Most of us are already familiar with the sad fact that lawyers in the United States are more prone to depression than any other profession. But I was surprised to learn from this post at Legal Pad that [...]

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Tags: mental illness

New English decision on without prejudice privilege and mediations

April 25th, 2007 · No Comments

Herbert Smith, an English firm, have written a little note about Brown v Rice & Patel [2007] EWHC 625 (Ch). The decision does not come to any startling conclusions, but recaps the more recent English decisions on without prejudice privilege, and is accordingly worth noting. [...]

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Tags: duties of confidentiality

Judge Bowman temporary VCAT President

April 23rd, 2007 · No Comments

The Age reports today that Judge Bowman, the more senior of VCAT's 2 Vice-Presidents, has been appointed Acting President pending the appointment of a permanent President. The Age speculates who might be appointed too.

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Tags: VCAT

Useful propositions from Z v New South Wales Crime Commission

April 23rd, 2007 · No Comments

These propositions from Z v New South Wales Crime Commission [2007] HCA 7 may be useful in relation to matters more generally than for understanding the basis of the Court's decision:

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Tags: Ethics · Retainers · duties of confidentiality · legal professional privilege

High Court on whether client's identity can be privileged

April 23rd, 2007 · No Comments

A man came to a lawyer and sought advice about the implications of anonymously passing to police information about a suspected criminal. The solicitor gave advice, and the client authorised the communication of the information to the police. The solicitor passed it on without advising his client's identity. Years later, after the suspected criminal allegedly [...]

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Tags: Ethics · duties of confidentiality · legal professional privilege

Free notifications of new High Court and Vic Supreme Court cases; client legal privilege watch

April 23rd, 2007 · No Comments

I found some useful web resources yesterday. First, Peter Faris QC publishes blogs which do no more than consolidate in one place all the court-provided information (what I think of as the unreported version of a headnote) about the decisions of the High Court, Supreme Court of Victoria, and Victorian Court of Appeal. Each court's [...]

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Tags: Ethics · Law Blogs · duties of confidentiality · legal professional privilege

Chinese wall crumbles in big litigation and Optus loses its lawyers 2 years in

April 22nd, 2007 · 2 Comments

Asia Pacific Telecommunications Ltd v Optus Networks Pty Ltd [2007] NSWSC 350 is a decision with wonderfully appalling facts. In the rush to agree consent orders before a directions hearing one morning, a megafirm sent a document to the other side which handed proof on a platter of a flagrant breach of a Chinese [...]

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Tags: Ethics · conflicts · current client and past client · duties of confidentiality · duty and duty

High Court speaks on accrual of cause of action for negligence in pure economic loss case

April 22nd, 2007 · No Comments

On Friday, the High Court published a near unanimous judgment in Commonwealth of Australia v Cornwell [2007] HCA 16 on the accrual of a cause of action for negligence in which pure economic loss was claimed. I am yet to read the judgment properly, however it is apparent that a cause of action in negligence [...]

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Tags: Limitations of actions · Negligence · defences

Equitable damages for breach of confidence, tortious invasion of privacy, breach of statutory duty: privacy legislation

April 20th, 2007 · No Comments

In Jane Doe v ABC [2007] VCC 281, the County Court's Judge Felicity Hampel granted a cool quarter of a million dollars in damages for the tort of invasion of privacy, for breach of the statutory duty in s. 4(1A) of the Judicial Proceedings Reports Act not to publish identifying details about victims of [...]

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Tags: duties of confidentiality