Legal Services Commissioner v BH [2008] VCAT 687 is a case with terrible facts. A man died as a result of a crime. The family hired the respondent solicitor to act for them in crimes compensation applications. He lost the file some time into the second year of the retainer, but did [...]

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The latest application for review of a decision of the Legal Services Board decision not to grant a practising certificate was in the matter of DAP v Law Institute of Victoria [2008] VCAT 688. The 57 year old solicitor and former Melbourne Cricket Club Committee member was a property lawyer at one of Melbourne's [...]

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Ok, so it's the man better known as Justice Mark Weinberg of the Federal Court of Victoria, but damn is the man a judge of many courts at once. If I read Deakin University's staff profile properly, his Honour is concurrently a judge of:

the Federal Court;
the Supreme Court of Norfolk Island (he sentenced Janelle [...]

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In Legal Services Commissioner v SAC [2008] VCAT 576, a solicitor ignored the Bureau for over 6 months before the Bureau moved to prosecute him for non-compliance with the Commissioner's demands.  After the charge was laid but before it was heard, the solicitor provided an adequate response and apologised. Didn't do him any good though: [...]

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Sometimes, the slight elevation of my e-soap box causes me to give in to the urge to go off message. My apologies in advance. But the Prime Minister is embroiled in a so-called diplomatic row for having said 'there are significant human rights problems in Tibet'. The Chinese response was 'people in Tibet are [...]

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Chakera v Kuzamanovic [2003] VSC 92 is a decision of the Supreme Court of Victoria's Justice Nettle in relation to the effect of a default under the costs disclosure regime under the Legal Practice Act, 1996. It stands for the proposition that in the case of complete non-compliance with the costs disclosure regime, the [...]

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I prepared an application to restrain a firm of solicitors from acting in a Corporations List matter in the Supreme Court recently, and so have been reading the latest cases about conflict injunctions. The very latest is TJ Board & Sons Pty Ltd v Castello [2008] VSC 91, where the plaintiff applied unsuccessfully to [...]

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In JLL v Law Institute of Victoria Limited [2008] VCAT 456, a Box Hill solicitor who had paid only $5,000 of the $55,000 odd he owed under orders of the Legal Profession Tribunal was given a practising certificate by VCAT, overturning a decision of the Law Institute not to give him one on the basis [...]

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