Megafirm partner who stole to make budget gets his ticket back after long...
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...
View ArticleKylie’s one-time lawyer before VCAT’s Legal Practice List
Update, 18 July 2008: Make that a $200,000, not $20,000, loan from rock impressario Michael Gudinski. I like the way he gave evidence to VCAT’s Legal Practice List by mobile phone from a US Billy Joel...
View ArticleLaw Institute seeks 50 year ban for 62 year old solicitor
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...
View ArticleLatest word on burden of proof in professional discipline ‘prosecutions’
In this post, I just reproduce what Deputy President Dwyer said recently about the burden of proof, right to silence, and inferences which may be drawn from the fact of the exercise by a solicitor of...
View ArticleBeak bribe boast bars barro
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...
View ArticleCommissioner’s unexplained delay reduces penalty for serious misconduct
Speaking of the need for speed as Justice Heydon and I were on this blog yesterday, there are two other instances worthy of reporting. First, the High Court has recently considered the need for speed...
View ArticleDisciplinary charges and intentional wrongdoing
Update, 4 December 2009: see now Legal Services Commissioner v Madden (No 2) [2008] QCA 301. What the Queensland Court of Appeal said there about Walter’s Case, the subject of this post, is reproduced...
View ArticleCommissioner’s obligation to charge dishonesty if he intends to allege it
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,...
View ArticleNew South Wales Law Society misconceivedly suspends sole practitioner’s PC...
In Dennis v Council of the Law Society of New South Wales [2014] NSWSC 1487, the Law Society suspended a sole practitioner’s practising certificate with immediate effect and appointed a manager to his...
View ArticleNSW solicitor who didn’t pay counsel’s fees struck back on
Salvatore Russo, a solicitor of 29 years’ standing, was struck off NSW’s roll of solicitors on 16 April 2016 by NCAT. He had received payment from his client for counsel’s fees but not paid counsel...
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