Russell does a runner

Updated on Wednesday, June 27, 2012 by Justinian

Bankruptcy - Russell Keddie's latest stunt ... Millions owing to former clients and lawyers ... Transfer of assets to be unravelled ... Roulstone and Barakat next in line to go belly-up? ... Substantial amounts owed to tax man ... Remember Gus Cummins "QC AJC" and the Hunters Hill "transfer"? 

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Bail out

Shock jock demagogue Ray Hadley starts bullying politicians to crush proposed reforms to the Bail Act ... LRC report not yet before cabinet ... Police muscle on display ... Opponents don't like the sound of "presumption in favour of bail" ... But don't quite understand what it means ... Listen up 

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Sentencing terror

Fabulous sentencing transcript from County Court, Victoria ... Judge James Montgomery and counsel wrestle with the dates and the years ... Pythonesque proceedings ... Court reporter struggles to keep up ... Tears to the eyes 

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A mere trifle

Queensland QCs arm twisting republican SCs ... Too many barristerial layers ... Sacking of 'staves spreads to the Dizzo ... Judges need to sharpen their writing if they criticise wordy affidavits ... Memories of Michael Lawler on the 12th floor Wentworth-Selborne ... Law Society president's divorce driven charity drive 

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You've got to be Kedding

Updated on Tuesday, June 12, 2012 by Justinian

UPDATE ... Keddies has been the biggest public overcharging scandal to confront the legal profession in NSW ... Yet the Legal Services Commissioner, Steve Mark, has ended-up in a woeful place ... In order to get his partners off the hook Russell Keddie made admissions ... Admissions which don't stack-up 

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Order me a f*&%ing pizza while you're at it

Excruciating scenes in Justice Daubney's court as accused lets fly with ripe abuse ... "Listen here lard arse - f*&% you" ... Commendable restraint from judge ... Leaf from Maroons book ... Sir Terence O'Rort reports from courtside 

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Putting the Queen back into Queensland

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 

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James Hardie and the rule of law brigade

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 

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More respect, please

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  

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Out of the west

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  

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Educators are the new litigation lodestone

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 

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The mother tongue

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 

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Apres nous le deluge?

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 

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Double indemnity

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 

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The Vatican Rag

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 

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Keddies drops claim to pay $3.4 million in damages by instalments

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 

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A lustrous place in the sun

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  

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Tricky bits in the budget

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 

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Twittering courts

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 

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Triumph of remorse

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 

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