Update, 18 July 2008: Make that a $200,000, not $20,000, loan from rock impressario Michael Gudinski. I like the way he gave evidence to VCAT's Legal Practice List by mobile phone from a US Billy Joel concert. Leonie Wood's report for The Age is here.
Update, 15 July 2008: Apparently the Law Institute's trust account [...]

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Update, 17 June 2008: The Age has caught up with this story. It's a funny old article. Weirdest is this comment 'A prominent senior counsel said the system was unfair, and any complaint should be forwarded immediately to the subject of the complaint.' In my experience, the Commissioner does almost invariably send [...]

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As reported in today's Australian Financial Review, the NSW Court of Appeal has told the Administrative Decisions Tribunal's Legal Services Division that it got it wrong when it found a Sydney solicitor guilty of gross overcharging. The case is  LN v Legal Services Commissioner  [2007] NSWCA 130  Though the solicitor signed the bill, he did [...]

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In PJQ v Law Institute of Victoria Ltd [2005] VSCA 326, the President of the Court of Appeal laid down the law in relation to applications for stays pending appeals of suspension orders meted out by VCAT (then the Full Legal Profession Tribunal):

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The last post referred to part 1 of the last chapter of an intriguing saga. The second and final part of that chapter is the decision on costs: PJQ v Law Institute of Victoria (No. 2) [2007] VSCA 132. The President of the Court of Appeal rejected the following submissions by the Institute:

that the Institute [...]

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PJQ v Law Institute of Victoria[2007] VSCA 122 is the part 1 of the last chapter in a story of good tactical plays characteristic of professional discipline specialist Sam Tatarka in the representation of a solicitor charged with gross overcharging, and applying trust monies to pay his fees without the appropriate paperwork. It sounds like [...]

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The latest and possibly last chapter in the tribulations of Victoria's most senior female silk is to be found in M v VCAT [2007] VSC 89, a decision of Justice Mandie. The barrister was charged on 4 July 2005 with 24 charges of misconduct, and ended up after a hearing of the first [...]

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In B (A Solicitor) v Victorian Lawyers RPA Ltd (2002) 6 VR 642 (Ormiston, Charles and Batt JJA), the majority criticised the Chairman of the Full Legal Profession Tribunal for retorting to the solicitor's submission that "These proceedings are a full time occupation for me" with "Occupation or obsession, Mr [G]?". They said it was [...]

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B (A Solicitor) v Victorian Lawyers RPA Ltd (2002) 6 VR 642 (Ormiston, Charles and Batt JJA)
The Law Institute corresponded with the solicitors in this matter between 1998 and October 2000. The CEO Ian Dunn, wrote what is known in the game as "a Murray letter" on 16 October 2000. That is a letter summarising [...]

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The following handy passage is from the case referred to in the previous post, Papps v Medical Board of South Australia [2006] SASC 234, per Gray J:

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