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

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Entries from May 2007

Melbourne lawyers blogging

May 31st, 2007 · No Comments

There are a few out there. Most prominent is Peter Faris QC, one of the irrascible characters of the Victorian Bar about whom I have posted before. He rails against Islamic fundamentalism and what he perceives as the West's wimpish response, and puts up hoops for civil liberties loving folk like me to jump their [...]

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Tags: Law Blogs

Summary dismissal in a solicitors' negligence claim at VCAT

May 28th, 2007 · 3 Comments

Skinner's Case [2007] VCAT 917, a claim against a leading labour law firm, was for some reason heard in VCAT's Civil List. A more likely list would have been the Legal Practice List, given that it was a professional negligence claim, albeit one pleaded under the Fair Trading Act, 1999 and the Trade Practices Act, [...]

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Tags: Abuse of process · Fair Trading Act · Negligence · VCAT · VCAT Act · defences

Updates: big words, Texan legal writing, conflicts of duties

May 27th, 2007 · No Comments

In my post "Judge uses big word", I commented on President Mason's use of "tergiversation". Now David Starkoff at Inchoate has noted another's analysis of the odds of each of the High Court judges other than Justice Kirby being responsible for the appearance of "epexegetical" (which seems to mean "explanatory in a way [...]

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Tags: Ethics · Fiduciary duties · Judges · Legal writing · concurrent duties · conflicts · current client and past client · duties of confidentiality · duty and duty · duty and interest · interest of associate

Unbettered Calderbank offer gives rise to no presumption of solicitor-client costs

May 27th, 2007 · No Comments

Stipanov v GCFM [2006] VSC 258, in which a professional negligence claim against a solicitor failed on causation, was posted on here. The costs decision, Stipanov v GCFM (No. 2) [2006] VSC 424 has only recently come to my attention. Despite the complete failure of the plaintiff's claim and an early substantial offer from the [...]

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Tags: Party party costs

Supreme Court judge doesn't say a word in court for 15 months

May 20th, 2007 · No Comments

The only black judge of the United States Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas is said by Wikipedia to be second most likely to vote in favour of free speech in cases before the Court. Yet his advocacy of free speech does not extend to enthusiasm for personal exercise of the right; he has not asked [...]

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Tags: Judges

The American version of the Briginshaw standard of proof

May 20th, 2007 · No Comments

In a stinging dissent against the conclusion of a majority of the Supreme Court of Washington that a lawyer had breached a conflict of duties rule in representing multiple parties, one judge set out what sounds a lot like the US version of the Briginshaw standard of proof which prevails in Australian and English disciplinary [...]

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Tags: Discipline · Ethics · Sharing receipts with non-lawyers · concurrent duties · conflicts · duty and duty · litigation ethics

Sentencing the thieving beak

May 17th, 2007 · No Comments

The Judicial College of Victoria has created a beautiful publication with the assistance of the judges of the land. It is the Victorian Sentencing Manual, freely available to the public, a kind of restatement of the law of sentencing reminiscent of the very useful restatements of the laws produced in America. I hope their next [...]

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Tags: Criminal liability

Judge Bowman explains Murray's Case

May 15th, 2007 · No Comments

VCAT's Acting President Judge Bowman today handed down a long and important decision in relation to the relationship between alleged failures to follow the procedures for investigating complaints against professionals laid down by legislation and the jurisdiction of the disciplinary tribunal to hear charges laid as a result of such investigations. After eight months' thought, [...]

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Tags: Discipline · VCAT · jurisdiction · procedure · regulators' duties

Public reprimand for intemperate written submissions

May 13th, 2007 · No Comments

A Delaware attorney has been publicly reprimanded for intemperate written submissions. The judgment goes through the American superior court law on where the boundary between zealous advocacy and impermissibly intemperate attack lies. Great minds differed; the Supreme Court overturned a decision of the Board of Professional Responsibility which found that the language did not warrant [...]

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Tags: Discipline · duty to court · litigation ethics

Doctor blogs medical negligence case against him

May 11th, 2007 · No Comments

11 June 2007 Update: the blog was his undoing. Under the moniker "Flea", an American doctor is blogging the medical negligence case against him. He explains the results of his google searches on the plaintiff's angular-faced and humourless attorney, and this:
'Flea spent most of the day in his attorney's office. A well-known jury preparation expert [...]

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Tags: Negligence · doctors