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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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