Further delays in "bring them to heel" proceedings against Keddies ... Defendants want formal charges for contempt of court case ... Breach of ordinary tenets of professional courtesy ... Possible cross-examination set for Monday
Proceedings for contempt against Keddies partners Tony Barakat, Russell Keddie and Scott Roulstone have been put on hold until Monday (Dec 12) after an anticlimactic session in the Supreme Court this afternoon (Wed. Dec. 7).
Chris Branson QC, for the Keddies Three, submitted that contempt constituted a criminal matter warranting criminal standards of proof and strict adherence to formal procedure.
Justice Michael Adams accepted that it would be improper to proceed with any cross-examination of the former Keddies partners in the absence of a detailed statement of charge outlining particulars of conduct.
Bob Stitt QC, for the plaintiffs, was given leave to file a notice of such a motion in court today, with particulars to be supplied in the next 24 hours.
Adams, who on Tuesday (Dec. 6) demanded that the Keddies boys front-up to court for examination, expressed his disapproval of the reluctance of Barakat, Keddie and Roulstone as "officers of the court" to provide an explanation of their conduct in arranging settlements with former clients they had been ordered not to approach.
Adams noted that, up until this case, he had believed ...
"the ordinary tenets of professional courtesy would extend to the voluntary proffering of an explanation for their conduct ... quite apart from more formal proceedings against them ...
I would like to put on record my grave disapproval that [the Keddies partners], particularly Mr Roulstone, take a different view."
Roulstone is a former vice-president of the Law Society of NSW.
Adams was also surprised at Branson's failure to ask his clients whether any further cheques or payments had been made to other litigants, in further possible contravention of his orders.
The new notice of motion is returnable on Monday (Dec. 12).
See: Tuesday (Dec 6) report: Order to Keddies: show cause.
From reporter Pierce Hartigan in Court 12D