Search
This area does not yet contain any content.
Justinian News

Unread emails ... Family law barrister in Adelaide neglects to attend to emails ... Reminders to renew her ticket studiously ignored ... Unravelling chaos ... Trials invalidated ... Liability of Law Society and Conduct Commissioner ... Breach of statutory requirement ... Damages ... From our Team on the Torrens ... Read more >> 

Politics Media Law Society


An Australian Abroad ... An essay with pictures … Egypt and the Grand Museum … No end to the antiquities … Down the Nile on a dahabiya … Tombs and temples … Paris and industrial-scale tourism … The Yarts & Kulture ... Read on >> 

Free Newsletter
Justinian Columnists

Annihilation of the now ...Trump's campaign of destruction ... Fake emergencies ... Pointless and farcical executive orders ... Gangsterism ... Looting ... Corruption ... Shakedowns ... White rage ... Christian nationalism ... Roger Fitch unloads ... Read more >> 

Blow the whistle

 

News snips ...


Tasmanis's Lieutenant Guv (and CJ) Christopher Shenanigans is unlikely to decide the consitiutional impass ... The current guv'nor, former Circuit Court judge and family lawyer Barbara Baker returns to Guv House next week ... Labor hates the Greens and is unlikely to form a coalition government ... Another election looks likely as the numbers for both sides are brittle and unreliable ... However, Baker can ask the Labor leader to test his numbers. 

Justinian's Bloggers

Letter from London ... Weather report ... Starmer sinking ... Farage rising ... Fake law firm ... Fake cases ...  NHS employee cleans up with woke case for hurt feelings ... Floyd Alexander-Hunt files from Blighty ... Read more >> 

"In its self-image, Australia has changed from a nation of tough, resilient Anzacs to a snowflake society of victims. This can be seen in the rise of identity politics, cancel culture, trigger warnings, unconscious bias, workplace Broderickism, LGBTQIA+ pleading, colonisation impacts, hidden disabilities and welfare dependency. Hurt feelings, offensive words, micro-aggressions, workload stress and anxiety now form the basis of workers compensation claims."

Mark Latham MLC - a dissenting statement in a parliamentary report on proposed changes to workers compensation law ... May 2025 ... Read more flatulence ... 


Justinian Featurettes

Zeilgeist litigation ... Matt Collins KC on live-streaming of high-profile trials ... Social media nightmare ... Abuse of barristers ... Chilling emails ... Trials as a form of public entertainment ... Courts sleepwalking into a dangerous zone ... Framework needed to balance competing interests ... Paper delivered to Australian Lawyers Alliance Conference ... Read more >> 


Justinian's archive

Justice Jeff Shaw's bingle ... Supreme Court judge's drink-drive experience ... Cars damaged in narrow Sydney street ... Touch driving ... Missing blood sample ... Equality before the law may not apply to judges ... Judges behind the wheel ... From Justinian's Archive ... November 4, 2004 ... Read more >> 


 

 

« Retired judge off the leash | Main | Allan Myers in the box »
Wednesday
Dec122012

Wagga Wagga lawyers revolt

UPDATE ... Wagga practitioners grizzle about Dizzo circuit judge ... Letter of complaint sent to Reg Blanch at head office ... Listings and hearing dates rejigged unceremoniously ... Practitioners fed-up ... Blanch's dismissive reply  

PRACTITIONERS in Wagga Wagga are up in arms about Norm Delaney, the Dizzo judge who presides over the local sittings.

So much so that the District Court civil sub-committee of the South West Slopes Law Society has sent a blistering letter of complaint to Reg Blanch. 

Practitioners are cross that HH is relisting matters, sometimes in Wagga, sometimes in Parramatta. 

The listing of Wagga matters in Parramatta results in significant additional costs. 

In one instance, a Wagga firm incurred counsel's fees for applications and directions hearings, which HH ordered to be held in Parramatta, totalling more than $14,000. 

"The relisting is almost invariably as a result of a decision of His Honour, without any input or request from either party." 

Directions hearings are often ignored or set aside "for reasons which are opaque to our members". 

It seems the judge does not accept there are "good reasons" why matters may not be ready to be assigned a hearing date. 

"He will often set aside consent orders, made for perfectly good reasons, without argument, and on occasions will make adverse costs orders ..." 

He allegedly lists matters for hearing, contrary to the submissions of the parties, while they are in the process of having informal settlement conferences or mediations. 

He is also accused of fixing the listing of cases without regard to priority, causing "confusion and uncertainty amongst members of the profession - more importantly it creates a great deal of anxiety to the litigants". 

There's also an accusation that, "timely judgments do not appear to be delivered by His Honour".

The upshot is that solicitors are filing statements of claim at another registry, where they are dealt with "more efficiently and at less cost than going through the process currently imposed uopon the Wagga lists". 

The locals want Reg to consider what can be done to get things running efficiently. 

"Our members will, of course, continue to cooperate with whichever judicial officer, including Judge Delaney, who may preside over the circuits in the years to come." 

Read the full letter here

And here's is Blanch's dismissive reply ... 

Reg Blanch's reply to Wagga solicitors

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.
Editor Permission Required
You must have editing permission for this entry in order to post comments.