Morwell solicitor to pay $5,500 for ignoring Bureau de Spank
A Morwell solicitor has been ordered to pay a fine of $3,000 and costs of almost $2,500 for ignoring the Legal Services Commissioner’s demands under the Legal Profession Act, 2004 power resident in her...
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 ArticleThe practising certificate suspension challenge that went wrong
Update, 8 November 2008: When I wrote this post, the Court of Appeal had authoritatively answered another of the questions posed below, about the penalty privileges, but I had not yet read the case, CT...
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 ArticleNew cases
Legal Services Commissioner v Dempsey [2010] QCA 197 is an unsuccessful appeal from a disciplinary prosecution in which findings of dishonesty were made. Dye v Fisher Cartwright Berriman Pty Ltd [2010]...
View ArticleShould the liability for costs of a disciplinary prosecution impact on the...
The answer is, at least in NSW — Yes. In Legal Services Commissioner v MB (No 3) [2009] NSWADT 313, a tribunal presided over by Deputy President Haylen gave the following reasons for punishing the...
View ArticleA reprimand is not just a slap over the wrist; the value of precedents in...
In Peeke v Medical Board of Victoria [1994] VicSC 7 at p. 6, Marks J commented in a judgment substituting a reprimand for the inferior tribunal’s 6 month suspension that a reprimand should not be...
View ArticleNZCA stomps on attempt to limit costs against disciplinary bodies
In Roberts v A Professional Committee of the Nursing Council of New Zealand [2014] NZCA 141 a nurse had pleaded guilty to having sex with a vulnerable patient. He had been suspended from nursing for...
View ArticleLPUL’s transitional provisions
Nothing is quite as un-fun as argument about transitional provisions, but it is often unavoidable, since disciplinary tribunals are usually creatures of statute, and if the new or the old statute is...
View ArticleOn the interpretation of ‘exceptional circumstances’ provisions re costs
Di Lorenzo v The Magistrates’ Court of Victoria [2021] VSC 475 was a case in which the Supreme Court spent 2 hearing days on a judicial review of a costs order worth $5,000. One paragraph of it...
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