Speaking of the need for speed as Justice Heydon and I were on this blog yesterday, there are two other instances worthy of reporting.
First, the High Court has recently considered the need for speed in criminal proceedings, and were not nearly as excited about it as in commercial litigation. This time, they rolled the court [...]

[Read more →]

A solicitor was found guilty of professional misconduct in early 2006 for failing to respond to the Commissioner.  Then he was found guilty again for a similar thing in December last year and fined $1,500.  And then again just recently, by Senior Member Preuss, a decision maker who seems new to the Legal Practice List: [...]

[Read more →]

Trust monies tempt gamblers.  Sometimes solicitors succumb.  Consider R v. Gabriel W [2006] VSC 397, where $1 million disappeared from a solicitor’s trust account. Justice Teague locked him up, and said in the process:
‘16 I have read closely the reports of two psychologists who have examined you. They are Mr Beaton who saw you in [...]

[Read more →]

R v Maurice B [2008] VSC 254 records the sentencing remarks of Nettle JA apparently sitting in the trial division following a guilty plea by a solicitor who stole a quarter of a million dollars. The solicitor argued the state of his mind was relevant in two ways. First, he said his impaired mental [...]

[Read more →]

In Law Institute of Victoria v DSS [2008] VCAT 1179, the Institute sought in a misconduct prosecution an order that the solicitor not be allowed to handle trust monies for 50 years. Vice President Judge Ross described the submission as ’somewhat excessive’.
The solicitor had stolen $75,000 from his clients and out of his trust [...]

[Read more →]

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 [...]

[Read more →]

A decision of Senior Member Howell on 31 August 2007 has only just hit the screens: Legal Services Commissioner v IDE [2007] VCAT 2244.  A solicitor of 32 years’ standing let a file fester in the too hard basket for too long and then ‘buried his head in the sand’ when the Bureau sent over [...]

[Read more →]

The definitions of the greater and lesser disciplinary offences under the Legal Practice Act, 1996 and the new Legal Profession Act, 2004 are different.  Under the old act, the one was distinguished from the other by the absence or presence or wilful contravention of norms, or recklessness as to whether conduct would contravene norms. No [...]

[Read more →]

Let’s see if I can prompt any of you out of your commentless indolence with a question: what is the right thing to do when a self-represented man with self-evident psychosis characterised by florid delusions of a type which no sane person could possibly have sues your client? A friend of mine was appalled that [...]

[Read more →]

Here’s an interesting case about lawyers, incapacitated clients, paternalism, and the right to be represented. An Alzheimers affected woman hired a beak to oppose a guardianship application brought by her brother. The court appointed another lawyer to act for her, suspecting that the man she professed to want to marry had in fact [...]

[Read more →]