In Byrne v Marles [2008] VSCA 78, the subject of this earlier post, another issue arose. Justice Nettle confirmed that a complaint made to anyone other than the Commissioner is invalid as a trigger for the operation of the Legal Profession Act, 2004, but that if it finds its way to the Commissioner otherwise [...]
Entries Tagged as 'jurisdiction'
What happens when complainant lodges complaint with wrong regulator and it gets transferred
May 31st, 2008 · No Comments
Tags: Discipline · Legal Services Commissioner · jurisdiction · procedure
Victorian Legal Services Commissioner's 2006-2007 annual report
November 1st, 2007 · No Comments
The Legal Services Commissioner's annual report went online today. You can download the pdf by clicking here. The big news is that she's put 2 new blokes on the staff, but the blokes to sheila ratio has actually decreased (to 1 in 20).
In the year to 30 June 2007, the Commissioner's staff of 45 [...]
Tags: Discipline · Legal Practice Act · Legal Profession Act · Legal Services Commissioner · Professional regulation · jurisdiction · procedure
Doctor's opinion not given in trade or commerce so VCAT had no jurisdiction
June 27th, 2007 · No Comments
In a landmark decision with profound implications for VCAT's Fair Trading Act, 1958 jurisdiction over lawyer-client disputes about professional negligence and fees, a Deputy President of VCAT has recognised that it did not have jurisdiction to hear a former client's misleading and deceptive conduct claim brought against 'a professional' in the traditional sense of [...]
Tags: Fair Trading Act · Negligence · VCAT · defences · doctors · jurisdiction · procedure
Confirmed: your client can privately prosecute you for misconduct
June 3rd, 2007 · No Comments
Acting President Bowman handed down a decision on Friday in Cedric Naylor's Case [2007] VCAT 958 approving the existing practice of VCAT, and before it the Legal Profession Tribunal, of entertaining professional misconduct allegations against lawyers by their clients as part of applications to set aside costs agreements. Entertaining them, that is, outside the disciplinary [...]
Tags: Discipline · Legal Practice Act · Misconduct · Professional fees and disbursements · Unsatisfactory conduct · civil-disciplinary interplay · jurisdiction · procedure · setting aside costs agreements
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
VCAT's jurisdiction over post-proceedings Family Law fees
March 2nd, 2007 · No Comments
Senior Member Howell determined today in M v JC Lawyers [2007] VCAT 273 that VCAT had jurisdiction to entertain a costs dispute about solicitor-client fees of post-proceedings negotiations under the threat of mutual applications to reopen under the change of circumstances provisions the final orders of the Family Court made 9 years previously.
Tags: Legal Profession Act · Professional fees and disbursements · costs disputes · jurisdiction
Staying disciplinary proceedings as abuses of process
January 17th, 2007 · No Comments
The following passage from the NSW Court of Appeal's decision in Lindsay v Health Care Complaints Commission [2005] NSWCA 356 (Hunt AJA, others agreeing) casts some doubt on whether a medical disciplinary tribunal presided over by a judge had power to stay a disciplinary proceeding as an abuse of process. The issue arose in the [...]
Tags: Abuse of process · Uncategorized · autrefois acquit · jurisdiction · procedure
The great delegation debacle: B (A solicitor) v Victorian Lawyers RPA Ltd
November 24th, 2006 · No Comments
B (A Solicitor) v Victorian Lawyers RPA Ltd (2002) 6 VR 642 (Ormiston, Charles and Batt JJA)
The Law Institute of Victoria Limited used to be named Victorian Lawyers RPA Ltd. It, and the Victorian Bar, were the only two RPAs (Recognised Professional Associations) set up under the Legal Practice Act, 1996, which allowed for an [...]
Tags: Discipline · Legal Practice Act · jurisdiction · procedure · prosecutorial failures · regulators' duties
Court of Appeal reads down VCAT's jurisdiction to make orders in matters related to proceedings within its jurisdiction
September 17th, 2006 · No Comments
In The Herald & Weekly Times Pty Ltd v Victoria [2006] VSCA 146, the facts of which are described in the previous post, VCAT's Presdient Justice Morris, having found that the principle of functus officio was not an impediment to him reinstating the relevant proceeding and making further orders, purported to join the newspaper as [...]
Tags: jurisdiction
Bankrupt may not initiate dispute resolution procedure in relation to rights accrued prior to bankruptcy
August 20th, 2006 · No Comments
Kaiser v Faulkner [2006] VCAT 1302
What this case illustrates is simply that upon bankruptcy the right to seek compensation or the waiver or diminution of legal costs through the dispute process under the Legal Practice Act, 1996 vests in the trustee in bankruptcy and never revests in the bankrupt even if not taken up by [...]
Tags: Bankruptcy · jurisdiction

