Stephen Warne on professional negligence, regulation and discipline around the world

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Entries Tagged as 'Professional regulation'

Zarah wins

July 29th, 2008 · No Comments

Ms Garde-Wilson's back in business. In fact she never went out of business, since following the non-renewal of her practising certificate, she held a deemed practising certificate pursuant to the Legal Profession Act, 2004, s. 2.4.5(3) pending her VCAT merits review application. The assertion that she had ceased to be a fit and [...]

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Tags: Criminal liability · Practising certificates · Professional regulation · regulators' duties

Megafirm partner who stole to make budget gets his ticket back after long holiday

April 26th, 2008 · No Comments

The latest application for review of a decision of the Legal Services Board decision not to grant a practising certificate was in the matter of DAP v Law Institute of Victoria [2008] VCAT 688. The 57 year old solicitor and former Melbourne Cricket Club Committee member was a property lawyer at one of Melbourne's [...]

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Tags: Admission · Criminal liability · Legal Profession Act · Professional regulation · regulators' duties · trust monies

Once you've done your time, prior misconduct not an indicator of fitness to practise

April 4th, 2008 · No Comments

In JLL v Law Institute of Victoria Limited [2008] VCAT 456, a Box Hill solicitor who had paid only $5,000 of the $55,000 odd he owed under orders of the Legal Profession Tribunal was given a practising certificate by VCAT, overturning a decision of the Law Institute not to give him one on the basis [...]

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Tags: Criminal liability · Discipline · Misconduct · Professional regulation · Unsatisfactory conduct · regulators' duties

Application by appellant to remove respondent's trial counsel from appeal dismissed

February 5th, 2008 · No Comments

In Chen v Chan [2008] VSCA 2, President Maxwell and Justice of Appeal Redlich dismissed an application by the appellant for an order enjoining the respondent's solicitor and counsel from acting in the appeal. The applicant alleged that there had been wrongdoing by the respondent's lawyers at the trial. In fact that was [...]

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Tags: Abuse of process · Ethics · Professional regulation · concurrent duties · conflicts · duty and interest · duty to court · litigation ethics

Stephen Keim SC, Dr Haneef's barrister

January 30th, 2008 · No Comments

A delegate of John Britton, Queensland's Legal Services Commissioner, has declined to lay disciplinary charges against Dr Haneef's lawyer, Stephen Keim QC, despite finding a clear breach of a rule of professional conduct, and that — to my astonishment — Mr Keim gave his client's record of interview to The Australian without having sought Dr [...]

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Tags: Ethics · Professional regulation · advertising · litigation ethics

NSW wills and estates lawyers to have fees capped in family disputes

January 30th, 2008 · No Comments

The Sydney Morning Herald reports plans by the NSW Attorney General to cap fees proportionately to the amount at stake. The article is a bit light on what that means exactly, but the Law Society of NSW President purported to welcome the changes.

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Tags: Professional fees and disbursements · Professional regulation · Solicitor client bills of costs

The English profession

January 29th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Update, 12 February 2008: Apparently there's a lawyers' phones bugging scandal over in England.  Sounds like a fairly substantial problem to me.  I'll keep you posted, if I ever find the time.
Original post: Here's a pithy little article in The Times about 3 English lawyers' liability cases. Well worth the small effort to read it, [...]

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Tags: Professional regulation

English Legal Services Act gets royal assent; patnerships of barristers contemplated

November 16th, 2007 · No Comments

The English Legal Services Act (see this earlier post) has received Royal Assent. They're looking for a non-lawyer to be the new Chairman of the Legal Services Board. The Times reports:

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Tags: Professional regulation

ABC Radio National's Law Report on 'Lawyers Going AWOL'

November 13th, 2007 · No Comments

Today's Law Report is a panel discussion set up by its presenter, Damien Carrick, at a recent conference of legal regulators in Brisbane. There is a hypothetical about a sole practitioner who goes off the rails, and there's discussion about the inexplicable controversy over Dr Haneef's barrister Stephen Keim SC's provision of his client's transcript [...]

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Tags: Discipline · Professional regulation

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 [...]

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Tags: Discipline · Legal Practice Act · Legal Profession Act · Legal Services Commissioner · Professional regulation · jurisdiction · procedure