Judge Iain Ross, who was the head honcho of VCAT’s Legal Practice List, and the Tribunal’s Vice-President, has been appointed to the Supreme Court, presumably taking up the spot left behind by a good and honourable man and quiet champion of human rights, Justice David Harper, who has been appointed to the Court of Appeal. People from the generation before me typically seem to confuse him with Judge Les Ross, also a County Court judge, who retired in 2005. Justice Ross was appointed a Vice-President of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission at the age of 35 in 1994, and was there until he went off to Corrs briefly in early 2006. His Honour has been a County Court judge since 2007, and remained so as VCAT’s Vice-President. He was in charge of alternative dispute resolution at VCAT, and once referred to mediation my client’s application for orders compelling the Legal Services Commissioner to provide further and better particulars of a professional misconduct charge. Austlii records numerous careful and thorough decisions of his Honour in Legal Practice List matters, many of which I have blogged.
I did not even know that his Honour had commenced hearing cases in his new role, but The Age‘s front page today records that he is hearing an appeal from VCAT in the case about the taxi driver who, long ago, stabbed his wife to death under the grip of a psychosis from which he has now recovered. The case was XJF v Director of Public Transport [2008] VCAT 2303, a decision of Deputy-President Macnamara who seems to have moved into Justice Ross’s old spot as head honcho of the Legal Practice List. I posted about the decision here. Attorney-General Hulls’s press release says:
‘Judge Ross was appointed to the County Court in 2007 and currently serves as a Deputy
President of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, overseeing the Civil Division. Judge
Ross is also a part-time Commissioner at the Victorian Law Reform Commission.
“Judge Ross brings extensive experience in dispute resolution, employment, workplace relations
and administrative law,” Mr Hulls said.
Before his appointment Judge Ross was Vice President of the Australian Industrial Relations
Commission and a partner at Corrs Chambers Westgarth. He also holds a doctorate from
Sydney University.’
