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”
6. Illustrations in the Costs Space In this section of the paper, some recent cases in which the inherent or analogous implied jurisdiction has been resorted to are considered in detail. Re Jabe (2021) Re Jabe; Kennedy v Schwarcz [2021] VSC 106 is a decision of Justice McMillan in the course of considering whether to …
Continue reading “The Supreme Courts’ inherent supervisory jurisdiction (lawyers’ fees) Part 6”
5. The Costs Court is given certain powers of the Supreme Court Section 17D(1)(h) gives the Costs Court any jurisdiction given to it under any Act (including the Supreme Court Act) or by the Supreme Court’s rules, a provision which might seem at first glance to be redundant, but which might be intended to avoid …
Continue reading “The Supreme Courts’ inherent supervisory jurisdiction (lawyers’ fees) Part 5”
4. The Supreme Court and the Costs Court are different The Taxing Master was an officer of the Supreme Court. But the Costs Court is something different from the Supreme Court, even though it is said by the amendments to the Supreme Court Act 1986 by which it came into existence to be created within …
Continue reading “The Supreme Courts’ inherent supervisory jurisdiction (lawyers’ fees) Part 4”
3. Other courts The supervisory jurisdiction is often spoken of as an inherent jurisdiction of superior courts of record. So other states’ and territories’ Supreme Courts would have the same jurisdiction, albeit more amenable to statutory modification / influence than the Victorian Court’s jurisdiction. Those other courts still jealously guard their jurisdictions against statutory incursion, …
Continue reading “The Supreme Courts’ inherent supervisory jurisdiction (lawyers’ fees) Part 3”
2. The inherent supervisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court Woolf v Snipe (1933) 48 CLR 677 is a decision of the High Court in its original jurisdiction, constituted by Sir Owen Dixon who observed at 678-679 that ‘The superior Courts of law and equity possess a jurisdiction to ascertain, by taxation, moderation, or fixation, the …
Continue reading “The Supreme Courts’ inherent supervisory jurisdiction (lawyers’ fees) Part 2”
A recent decision of the NSW Court of Appeal has reinforced the vigor and breadth of the inherent supervisory jurisdiction of Australia’s superior courts, a hobby horse of mine for a couple of years now, and applied it in the context of a solicitor who overcharged his client, a mortgagee, to the ultimate detriment of …
My case note of Hartnett v Bell [2023] NSWCA 244 is here. The purpose of this sister post is to reproduce the summary of the law relating to the superior courts’ inherent jurisdiction to supervise the charging of and discipline its officers which Bell CJ set out at [123]: ‘Several statements of authority may be noted …
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 …