Relatively recently, I posted on the question of whether a Bureau de Spank desiring to rely on a practitioner’s dishonesty or other form of conscious wrongdoing must expressly allege it in the charge, and discussed Walter v Council of Queensland Law Society Incorporated (1988) 77 ALR 228 at 234; [1988] HCA 8. Now, in Legal [...]
Entries Tagged as 'wilful disregard for rules'
Commissioner’s obligation to charge dishonesty if he intends to allege it
December 4th, 2009 · No Comments
Tags: Discipline · Ethics · Legal Profession Act · Legal Services Commissioner · Misconduct · Practising certificates · Professional regulation · Striking off · Trust money · amendment · appeals · concurrent duties · conflicts · current client and past client · duty and duty · jurisdiction · natural justice · procedure · trust monies · wilful disregard for rules
Disciplinary charges and intentional wrongdoing
October 29th, 2009 · No Comments
Update, 4 December 2009: see now Legal Services Commissioner v Madden (No 2) [2008] QCA 301. What the Queensland Court of Appeal said there about Walter’s Case, the subject of this post, is reproduced at the end of the post.
Original post: Does a lawyer’s Bureau de Spank have to say in a charge in a [...]
Tags: Discipline · Misconduct · Unsatisfactory conduct · natural justice · procedure · prosecutorial failures · prosecutors' duties · reckless disregard for rules · trust monies · wilful disregard for rules
Latest word on burden of proof in professional discipline ‘prosecutions’
August 30th, 2008 · 1 Comment
In this post, I just reproduce what Deputy President Dwyer said recently about the burden of proof, right to silence, and inferences which may be drawn from the fact of the exercise by a solicitor of the right to silence. He said it in the context of a hard-fought hearing into the conduct of Kylie’s [...]
Tags: "disgraceful and dishonourable" · Discipline · Legal Practice Act · Legal Services Commissioner · Misconduct · Unsatisfactory conduct · VCAT Act · common law · procedure · prosecutorial failures · reckless disregard for rules · trust monies · wilful disregard for rules
Suddenly, solicitors are losing their practising certificates for not cooperating with the Bureau de Spank
May 27th, 2008 · No Comments
Update, 13 June 2008: In Legal Services Commissioner v GT [2008] VCAT 982, the solicitor failed to respond to a Bureau demand for 8 months. The complaint about which the Commissioner sought information was of not attending to client affairs, just like the complaint which, amongst others, gave rise to two misconduct findings and two [...]
Tags: Discipline · Legal Services Commissioner · Misconduct · wilful disregard for rules
Court of Appeal sets aside unduly harsh outcome in gross overcharging prosecution
June 28th, 2007 · No Comments
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 [...]
Tags: "question of law" · Discipline · Legal Practice Act · Misconduct · Professional fees and disbursements · Striking off · appeals · gross overcharging · mental illness · prosecutorial failures · wilful disregard for rules
WA solicitor guilty of unprofessional conduct in “No compensation = No legal fees” ad
August 28th, 2006 · No Comments
Legal Practitioners’ Complaints Committee v SJB [2006] WASAT 201
It is a serious crime in Western Australia to advertise in a way calculated to cause a person make a personal injury claim. A solicitor ran ads headed “Injured in a road accident and made a claim? If so, read on. [footnote: If you have not made [...]
Tags: Discipline · Ethics · No win no fee · Professional fees and disbursements · advertising · wilful disregard for rules

