A Victorian QC was jailed this year by a County Court judge for 2 with a minimum of 6 months for possessing child pornography. Recently, the Legal Services Board applied to the Supreme Court for an order striking him off. The QC did not appear but communicated his willingess to be struck off by signing [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Striking off'
Pagone J hesitates before making consent order striking QC off Victorian roll
December 15th, 2009 · 1 Comment
Tags: Striking off
Commissioner’s obligation to charge dishonesty if he intends to allege it
December 4th, 2009 · No Comments
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 [...]
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
Schapelle Corby’s former lawyer struck off
June 11th, 2009 · 2 Comments
Robin Tampoe, the former Gold Coast lawyer hired as one of Schapelle Corby’s lawyers by Ron Bakir, has been struck off the roll of solicitors by Queensland’s Legal Practice Tribunal. The decision is here. Removal from the roll is the ultimate sanction in the world of professional discipline, though in circumstances where it is not [...]
Tags: Client Legal Privilege · Discipline · Ethics · Misconduct · Striking off · duties of confidentiality
Beak bribe boast bars barro
February 4th, 2009 · No Comments
Legal Services Commissioner v JDG [2008] LPT 17 is a shocking case in which a Queensland barrister was struck off after he lied when confronted by investigators with the true proposition that he had offered to pay a $50,000 bribe to a Magistrate or Crown prosecutor on behalf of a client. He also took $59,000 [...]
Tags: "disgraceful and dishonourable" · Discipline · Legal Profession Act · Misconduct · Negligence · Professional fees and disbursements · Striking off · Trust money · common law · trust monies
The right to silence in disciplinary and striking off hearings
August 31st, 2008 · No Comments
I have previously posted about the QC who took his computer into work at the DPP only to lose his career when the tech found child pornography on it. It was a bizarre story, and of course there was a twist which has become clear from the disciplinary decision in Council of the NSW [...]
Tags: Criminal liability · Misconduct · Practising certificates · Striking off · procedure · prosecutors' duties
Burden of proof in actions to cancel a practising certificate or strike a lawyer off the roll of practitioners
July 21st, 2008 · 1 Comment
In Stanoevski v Council of the Law Society of NSW [2008] NSWCA 93, Justice of Appeal Campbell, with whom Justice of Appeal Hodgson and Acting Justice of Appeal Handley agreed, has provided important guidance on who bears which burdens of proof in cases where a legal regulator seeks to cancel a practising certificate or have [...]
Tags: Admission · Striking off
Law Institute seeks 50 year ban for 62 year old solicitor
July 11th, 2008 · No Comments
In Law Institute of Victoria v DSS [2008] VCAT 1179, the Institute sought in a misconduct prosecution an order that the solicitor not be allowed to handle trust monies for 50 years. Vice President Judge Ross described the submission as ’somewhat excessive’.
The solicitor had stolen $75,000 from his clients and out of his trust [...]
Tags: "disgraceful and dishonourable" · Criminal liability · Discipline · Misconduct · Practising certificates · Striking off · common law · costs · mental illness · procedure · prosecutorial failures · trust monies
From the newspapers
July 5th, 2008 · 1 Comment
Friday is definitely law news day. The Australian and the Australian Financial Review both have several pages of law news of a Friday. I might try to bring to the attention of you readers articles of interest from both on a relatively regular basis.
First though, some things from not-Friday. ABC Radio National’s The [...]
Tags: Criminal liability · Legal Services Commissioner · Striking off
Former Marsdens partner struck off the roll of solicitors in NSW
November 9th, 2007 · No Comments
Here’s a decision from the NSW Court of Appeal, apparently exercising original jurisdiction, in which a former partner of Marsdens in Campbellfield was struck off the roll by consent for receiving secret commissions of $180,000 amongst other things, including deceiving the investigation into that conduct: Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of NSW v Alcorn [2007] [...]
Tags: "disgraceful and dishonourable" · Criminal liability · Misconduct · Striking off
2nd edition of Professional Liability in Australia reviewed
October 18th, 2007 · No Comments
I was already a fan of the first edition of Judge Stephen Walmsley SC, Alister Abadee, and Ben Zipser’s excellent Professional Liability in Australia, published by Thomson, and had been waiting for the new edition with interest. I got myself a copy the other day. It’s good, and there are substantial additions since [...]
Tags: Advocates' Immunity · Barristers' immunity · Book reviews · Causation · Discipline · Duties to third parties · Ethics · Fair Trading Act · Fiduciary duties · Forensic immunity · Legal Profession Act · Legal writing · Limitations of actions · Misconduct · Negligence · Professional regulation · Proportionate Liability · Retainers · Striking off · Uncategorized · Wasted costs · conflicts · defences · doctors · duties of confidentiality · legal professional privilege · two bites at the cherry

