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 [...]

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11 June 2007 Update: the blog was his undoing. Under the moniker "Flea", an American doctor is blogging the medical negligence case against him. He explains the results of his google searches on the plaintiff's angular-faced and humourless attorney, and this:
'Flea spent most of the day in his attorney's office. A well-known jury preparation expert [...]

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H v Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria [2007] VCAT 526 was a rehearing of a case before the Medical Practitioners Board (the decision of which is here). VCAT, constituted by Vice President Harbison and Associate Professor Davis, reduced the severity of the outcome of an unprofessional conduct prosecution for an intimate relationship with a former [...]

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Re: Richard George Y [2007] MPBV is a decision of the Medical Board of Victoria about a GP and former model, a one-time member of Cleo's 50 most eligible bachelors who came to grief a second time for inappropriate comments while his hands were in his patient's genital area. "Holy Mackerel, you're small, which is [...]

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Here is what the then Chief Justice of South Australia, Doyle CJ, had to say in Craig v Medical Board of South Australia (2001) 79 SASR 545 at [41] to [48] about the purpose of disciplinary proceedings, referred to with approval by the Full Court of the Supreme Court of South Australia in Papps v [...]

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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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This is another salutary lesson against professionals representing themselves. An argument that the disciplinary tribunal had not accorded procedural fairness by failing to warn in advance of the possibility of a suspension was given short shrift.
And the courts' reticence to disturb the findings of specialist professional tribunals, even when exercising appellate jurisdiction under a statute [...]

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Tsigounis v Medical Board of Qld [2006] QCA 295 is a warning of the dangers of self-representation by professionals. A medical student at Monash University took more than 11 years to complete her medical degree 20 years ago. She could not find work in Victoria, and travelled to Townsville to do her internship following a [...]

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