The Australian Professional Liability Blog
Stephen Warne on professional negligence, regulation and discipline around the world
I had heard the rumour a fair while ago from the most impeccable sources in VCAT and the Supreme Court that the Supreme Court’s Justice Bell was hot tip to take over from Judge Bowman as VCAT’s head. Now it’s confirmed. Frankly, though it would not be every lawyer’s cup of tea, it’s a great …
Continue reading “Justice Kevin Bell appointed VCAT’s President”
Justice Patrick Keane retired from the High Court and Sydney-based Justice Jayne Jagot was elevated by Mark Dreyfus from the Federal Court, giving rise to a majority female court for the first time ever, but a court with a paucity of criminal jury trial experience. Her Honour will be eligible to serve for a further 17 …
Centenaries Noting that it was the centenary of Ulysses‘s publication as a book, I thought I would check my assumption that not much else really happened in 1922, except flappers and cocktails, as everyone congratulated themselves that the age of war had passed with the end of what was then known as The Great War. …
Continue reading “2022: Not Such a Good Year (historical context)”
In disciplinary proceedings, prosecutors often wrongly assume that findings in prior decisions (usually criminal convictions) are both admissible and un-challengeable by the respondent. Neither is true, however, at least where what is relied on by the prosecutor in the disciplinary case is something more than the fact of the conviction (e.g. the fact of the …
People mainly governed by twits By February 2021 (when Australia’s vaccine roll-out commenced), half a million Americans had died from COVID. That was already more than had died in the world wars and the Vietnam War combined. In one week in September, more Floridians died from COVID than all the Australian deaths from COVID to that …
Davey v Costanzo Lawyers Ltd [2021] VSC 449 is episode # c. 898 in my series about suits for fees, ‘Many a Slip Twixt Cup and Lip’. A family law firm whose website modestly explains that they are the ‘best family lawyers’ sued its former client for professional costs and barristers’ fees for work done in …
Today is World Environment Day. It prompted me to tidy up, in a minimal kinda way, and publish this hitherto unfinished and unpublished blog post from the ‘2019, Not Such a Good Year’ series. Of course, 2020 brought a new perspective on things. But the environment has kept going to shit, as I will no …
Continue reading “2019: Not Such a Good Year (Environment, Part II)”
Update, 19 March 2021: My Sydney colleague, Andrew Bailey, drew my attention to Longjing Pty Ltd v Perpetual Nominees Ltd [2017] NSWSC 1690 at [40]ff, which is to similar effect. Original post: In Carter v Mehmet [2021] NSWCA 32, the Court granted the respondents’ security for costs application in part because the appellant’s solicitors had much to …
Justice Blue’s clear and thorough reasons in Bell v Deputy Coroner of South Australia [2020] SASC 59 usefully rehearse and summarise the law relating to the privilege against penalties, its application in non-curial settings, and the circumstances in which an intention will be imputed to parliament to abrogate the privilege, including in the situation where …
Continue reading “Powers of compulsion and the privilege against penalties”
Here is my preliminary attempt at consolidating all the High Court cases about lawyers in one place. If I’ve missed any, let me know; it’s a work in progress. Re Coleman (1905) 2 CLR 834; [1905] HCA 19 The Court gave the following judgment, about a NSW solicitor who had attempted to engage in what …
I gave a paper to the Junior Bar Conference in 2017 which I titled ‘Tips on Costs and Fees’, so what follows is a couple of years old. Tip no. 1 was ‘Be all over the costs proportionality overarching obligation’.
I had a good enough 2019. I enjoyed interesting work, went on a trip to Singapore, Bangalore, Mysore, and Mangalore (no kidding), spent a magical Easter in Mallacoota where I have holidayed since I was a schoolboy, and enjoyed an eccentric roadtrip involving a lot of wheat and barley which took in Tittybong, Rainbow, Warne, …
Not such a good year. Much appeared to happen in the United States, but the story is still emergent and so I might save that for next year. Furthermore, query what actually happened, as Tom Switzer pointed out recently. He also pointed out that Tump’s approval ratings were on par with Merkel’s, Turnbull’s, and Theresa …
Update, 7 November 2018: the pendulum is certainly swinging in favour of pro se barristers being entitled to scale costs if they win: Pentelow v Bell Lawyers Pty Ltd [2018] NSWCA 150; Lake v Municipal Association of Victoria (No 2) [2018] VSC 660. Update, 30 November 2017: The Full Court of the Tasmanian Supreme Court …
Continue reading “Costs of the lawyer litigant: judgments all over the place”
The Civil Procedure Act 2010 applies to proceedings in the Magistrates’ Court, County Court, and Supreme Court but not federal courts or VCAT. Its overarching purpose is to ‘facilitate the just, efficient, timely and costs effective resolution of the real issues in dispute’: s. 7.
A failure to give reasons is an error of law.[1] Seriously inadequate reasons are corrosive of public confidence in the administration of justice and ought not to be tolerated by an appeal court, since justice must not only be done but be seen to be done. This is the first public policy informing the requirement …
Continue reading “Appeals from VCAT on the basis of inadequate reasons”
Australian election Yes, it was also an election year. It was a perfectly orderly festival of democracy in which people got who they voted for with little corruption and a retreat from the two party duopoly to spice things up a bit. I do not mean by including a report of the election to suggest …
Cruelly, the Legal Services Commissioner prosecuted my client recently for disbursing monies from his trust account to the wrong person, albeit without the slightest dishonest intent, which he said would be regarded by competent and reputable peers as disgraceful or dishonourable. I say ‘cruelly’ because he made me go to the Supreme Court Library, and …
Continue reading “Lessons from a tome in the dome on the assignment of suits’ fruits”
In Kalloghlian v Chubb Insurance Company of Australia Ltd [2016] NSWSC 902 (the Court’s summary is here), a man said he purchased a Rolex in Syria in 2005. He insured his things with Chubb against loss anywhere in the world. The policy was described as ‘Deluxe’. It specifically insured items which the insured owned as well as things he …
Continue reading “Proving a loss for insurance purposes; inadequacy of reasons as an appeal ground”
Advocates’ immunity was, until recently, more powerful than many lawyers were aware. Since the 1 July 2015 introduction of the Legal Profession Uniform Law and the High Court’s May 2016 decision in Attwells v Jackson Lallic Lawyers Pty Limited,[1] however, it may be narrower than many realise. And perhaps not everyone is aware that the …
Continue reading “Advocates’ immunity: at once more powerful and narrower than most yet understand”