Balkan intrigues ... Old coppers stagger into the Croatian Six inquiry ... 15-year jail terms in 1980 for alleged terrorism ... Miscarriage of justice under review ... Verballing ... Loading-up ... Old fashioned detective "work" ... Evidence so far ... Hamish McDonald reports ... Read more >>
Polly gets a cracker ... The Parrot falls from his bully pulpit … Performances … The end of the Wharf Revue … Bruce McClintock on stage at The Onion Club … Freaks on the loose in Washington ... Read on ...
Blue sky litigation ... Another costly Lehrmann decision ... One more spin on the never-never ... Arguable appeal discovered in the bowels of the Gazette of Law & Journalism ... Odious litigants ... Could Lee J have got it wrong on the meaning of rape? ... Calpurnia reports from the Defamatorium ... Read more >>
London Calling ... Vitamin D deficiency ... Anti-vax solicitor birched for "friendly warning" to schools ... Budget measures hit private school fee payers and their personal jets ... Robing room "humour" ... Equality and sensitivity training missing in action ... Floyd Alexander-Hunt reports from Blighty ... Read more >>
Vale Percy Allan AM ... Obit for friend and fellow-traveller ... Prolific writer on economics and politics ... Public finance guru ... Technocrat with humanity and broad interests ... Theatre ... Animals ... Art ... Read more ...
A triumph for Victorian morality ... Ashton v Pratt ... In the sack with Dick Pratt ... Meretricious sexual services renders contract void on public policy grounds ... Justice Paul Brereton applies curious moral standard ... A whiff of hypocrisy ... Doubtful finding ... Artemus Jones reporting ... From Justinian's Archive, January 24, 2012 ... Who knew the NACC commissioner had strong views on the sanctity of marriage ... Read more ...
Justinian's archive
Bar Talk • Wednesday, June 6, 2012 Long may she reign over us ... Down with SCs ... Queens Counsel make a happy and glorious return to the Queensland Bar … Tory AG and bar hatch exciting plan to turn back the clock … Jubilee celebrations send bar boys troppo
Court in the Act • Wednesday, June 6, 2012 The Rule of Law Institute had been rooting for upholding the NSW Court of Appeal's decision in the James Hardie directors' case ... Fortunately, the High Court had better ideas about the rule of law ... Strange connections ... Dyse Heydon's comprehensive skewering
Dyson Heydon, High Court, Rule of Law Institute Judges • Friday, June 1, 2012 NSW Chief Madge, Judge Graeme Henson, lets fly at AG bureaucrats ... Hard-pressed beaks ... Gripes about conditions ... Magistrates want the same perks as judges ... Furious response to newspaper article ... Department does nothing to fix court problems ... Lorenzo Glanfield seriously rebuked
Greg Smith, Laurie Glanfield, Magistrates Hellfire Club • Thursday, May 31, 2012 Chin wag … Solicitor falls foul of just about every vice in the book … Rudeness, overcharging, over servicing, false allegations, trust account diddles … Stipes recommend strike-off for solicitor who misled magistrate and told security guard "to go back to where he came from" ... Peta Smith reports from ringside
Professional misconduct Yarraside Yarns • Wednesday, May 30, 2012 Diddums doesn't do well ... Schools become an exciting battleground as parents sue ... Racial profiling as coppers frisk African teens for weapons ... Ted's prison building boom goes bust ... Sylvia Varnham O'Regan's Yarraside Yarns
William Collins • Tuesday, May 29, 2012 An infestation of weasel words ... Parliamentary draftsperson falls foul of post-modern abstractions ... Where was George Orwell when the Transport Integration Act was being drafted? ... From Yarraside, William Collins opines
George Orwell, Plain English Abel Magwitch • Tuesday, May 29, 2012 Change is in the air ... Abel Magwitch contemplates the forthcoming reconfiguration of the High Court ... A plea that the NSW and Victorian bars not be overlooked ... Doctrinal questions in play just as Gummow and Heydon are needed
Bill Gummow, Dyson Heydon, High Court, Judicial selection Around The Firms • Sunday, May 27, 2012 Another case of Keddies overcharging - this time by $150,000 ... Keddies' case collapses in Court of Appeal ... Indemnity costs at trial and on appeal ... Flailing about as costs and damages mount in ongoing breach of contract saga ... Splitski at Brydens
Goings On ... • Wednesday, May 23, 2012 Forget Washington, forget London - the Holy See is the gem in the diplomatic crown ... Einfeld finds a way back into our hearts ... ADT rebukes CCA over bullied barrister ... Murky outline of judicial complaints regime for federal judges
Around The Firms • Wednesday, May 16, 2012 Build-up of verdicts in District Court for overcharging ... Keddies Three put on affidavits as to how poor they are ... Application for time payment withdrawn as prospect of cross-examination looms
Russell Keddie, Scott Roulstone, Tony Barakat Leverhulme • Tuesday, May 15, 2012 The "rule of law" drum is repeatedly beaten as a way of reinforcing the great importance of lawyers and judges ... Yet, if the going got tough would lawyers, at risk to themselves, really stand-up for the rule of law? ... Or would they look the other way if faced with tyranny? ... Tulkinghorn provides an answer
Polly Peck • Friday, May 11, 2012 Polly Peck sniffs out some of the weirder corners of the federal budget … Drug money propping up the surplus … And access to justice takes a biff
Yarraside Yarns • Thursday, May 10, 2012 Baillieu government punts on a prison construction led recovery … More prisons … More crime … More political swagger ... Waiting to test the new freedom from double jeopardy … Twittering courts … Yarraside Yarns with Sylvia Varnham O'Regan
Crime, Double jeapordy, Twitter, Victorian police Hellfire Club • Thursday, May 10, 2012 Rehabilitation through admission … Admissions Board in Queensland loses five year battle to keep applicant off the jam roll … Court of Appeal smiles kindly on 66-year-old with an "unsatisfactory past" … Peta Smith reports
Hellfire Club • Wednesday, May 9, 2012 Not a client for the purposes of seeking to declare a fee agreement null and void ... But, definitely a client when barristers need to hook into claims against the fidelity fund - in cases where solicitors have misappropriated the loot ... Interesting juggling from Vic Supremes
Leverhulme • Friday, May 4, 2012 Leverhulme goes to Scotland and brings us news about Wee Eck ... The brawling MP for Falkirk ... The life and good works of Dame Elish Angiolini, former Scottish Lord Advocate ... Plus, who's putting the kettle on for Rupert?
Bar Talk • Thursday, May 3, 2012 Advocates immunity against suits in negligence alive and kicking ... Deficient pleadings prevented exploration by Court of Appeal of a possible qualification to the immunity ... Family law settlement dispute in Victoria also quelled
Hellfire Club • Tuesday, May 1, 2012 A long and torturous road ... Three years after proceedings by LSC commenced, Russell Keddie and employed solicitor Philip Scroope make admissions in agreed statements of facts to the Administrative Decisions Tribunal ... Gross overcharging by 46 percent ... Penalties pending
Bar Talk • Friday, April 27, 2012 Ancient warrior of the bar in tax man's sights … ATO wants blood from former bar councillor and ethics man … Dismay on Palm Plaza
Barristers, Barristers tax, Barry Toomey, Tax Judges • Tuesday, April 24, 2012 Ex-judges as mediators ... Out of court and back to work ... No worry about the barristers' five year rule ... Issues for the judicial pension scheme and the bar rules
Family Court, Mediation