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 [...]
Entries from May 2007
Melbourne lawyers blogging
May 31st, 2007 · No Comments
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Tags: Negligence · doctors

