Vlad in fresh fees tussle 

Vlad Atanaskovic – previously acted for Bolton

In the NSW SC, solicitor Paul Dalligan of Blue Rock Law was given leave to withdraw from representing businessman and “experienced litigant” Nicholas Bolton after the “irretrievable breakdown” of their working relationship. 

Dalligan was representing Bolton, a share trader and corporate raider, in a LPUL section 89 appeal after a costs assessment, favourable to Bolton and worth over $300,000, was subject to a certificate of determination. 

The claim is against Vlad the Impaler and his firm Atanaskovic Hartnell, which previously acted for Bolton.

Dalligan – the fourth solicitor to have acted for Bolton in the matter – complained that he refused to provide the money necessary for him to conduct the litigation. 

Prior to the proceedings, Dalligan was paid $20,000 to make an application for a stay of judgment, but Bolton submitted that this amount was intended to cover the entire case.

The court dismissed Bolton’s submission, finding that, as an experienced litigant, he should have a “good idea of how expensive it is to conduct civil litigation.” 

Justice Stephen Campbell also noted that Bolton was yet to pay the $2,500 allocation fee for the hearing.

Satisfied that their relationship had become “fractious,” HH gave Dalligan leave to withdraw from the case. 

In the same judgment, Atanaskovic Hartnell also claimed that the case should be dismissed for want of due dispatch, after Bolton failed to comply with an agreed timetable. 

HH dismissed this motion, finding that the changeover of solicitors, and personal matters on the part of Dalligan, contributed to the delay, and that it was not entirely Bolton’s fault. 

Bolton v John Ljubomir Atanaskovic and Lawson Andrew Jepps Trading as Atanaskovic Hartnell

For whom the Beling tolls

The Victorian CA threw out two challenges to disciplinary findings against solicitor Joel Beling, who alleged that officers of the court were in a “criminal conspiracy” against him.

In 2012, Beling acted as a sole practitioner for Tracie and Peter Hanna. They had lost their home in the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, and Beling encouraged them to sue the ANZ Bank for alleged credit code breaches regarding their mortgage repayments.

In 2013, Mrs Hanna lodged a complaint with the Legal Services Commissioner, claiming that Beling’s lawyering was deficient. The commissioner’s investigation led to a number of charges being laid in the VCAT.

VCAT considered Beling’s conduct as “disgraceful and dishonourable” in pushing a cause of action that lacked an evidentiary basis. 

In 2017, he was found guilty of professional misconduct and unsatisfactory professional conduct.

Beling commenced a judicial review of the commissioner’s investigation, which was dismissed in 2016. An application for an extension of time to appeal the dismissal was, itself, also dismissed. 

Beling also commenced proceedings in 2019, seeking to appeal the VCAT’s decision – but this was 25 months out of time. An application for an extension of time was thrown out. 

In a challenge to the dismissal of both of his time extension applications, Beling claimed that people within the office of the commissioner and judicial officers of the Supreme Court were engaged in a criminal conspiracy against him, claiming that they had doctored court documents. 

Beach and Niall JJA described Beling’s submissions as “prolix, hyperbolic and in many respects fanciful” – and ultimately unarguable. Both appeals were dismissed. 

Beling v Victoria Legal Services Commissioner

Ticket dodger

Chen, tip off from former colleague

The Council of the NSW Bar Association obtained judgment against former practitioner Yu-Sheng Chen, aka Alton Chen, for trading without a ticket. 

Chen, formerly of Edmund Barton Chambers, failed to renew his practising certificate in June 2022, but continued to act in various claims in courts across Sydney.

The Bar Association was tipped-off by Steven Goldstein, a barrister at Chen’s former chambers. It was submitted that Chen had for some time stopped responding to the clerk’s emails, and that the chambers was unaware that he had not renewed his ticket.

In an ex tempore judgment, given after hearings that Chen did not attend, Justice Richard Cavanagh considered Parramatta Local Court transcripts and affidavits from solicitors who had briefed Chen in matters while he was ticketless. 

Cavanagh made orders under s.447(2) and (3) of the LPUL restraining Chen from trading in NSW, and from making representations suggesting that he is entitled to practice. He was also ordered to pay the Bar Association’s costs. 

In 2019 there were news reports that Chen, who had purchased an apartment in the structuraly flawed Mascot Towers, was drowning in expenses. Two years earlier, Chen told The Bamboo Ceiling that he experienced discrimination as a barrister.