Legal Ethics

The former lawyer for Broken Hill Council, who was ordered to return over $2 million in unauthorised fees, has been socked with a $1 million order for indemnity costs for “exceptional” conduct in a case over his firm's rates.

A former client of a Sydney law firm has lost his bid to up a $300,000 damages award against the firm over a defective notice in a proposed $7.8 million land sale.

The solicitor wife of South Australia Court of Appeal president Justice Mark Livesey is under investigation by the state's legal watchdog for forwarding client files to her husband.

The Victorian Court of Appeal will rule on whether to grant a lawyer an extension to appeal a tribunal decision ordering that he be removed from the roll and barred from practicing for nine years, after he argued a judge's adverse comments about him during an adjournment rendered a tribunal decision void. 

A Melbourne silk wants to set aside a default judgment in a negligence case brought by a former client, claiming he should have the chance to defend his professional reputation. 

Former silk Norman O’Bryan has pleaded guilty in a criminal case over his role as senior counsel for the Banksia Securities class action.

A judge has approved orders bringing the receivership of Banksia Securities to an end, with the special receiver opting to not pursue $650,000 in costs against Victorian debenture holders who dropped their case alleging breaches to the scandal-ridden class action.

An irritated Labor MP has said that taking hopeless migration cases amounts to unconscionable conduct and urged lawyers not to waste their clients' money.

A Queensland solicitor has been referred to the Legal Services Commission after filing submissions in a client’s traffic offense case that a judge said contained fake citations and may have been AI-generated.

The Federal Court has cautioned self-represented litigants against using generative artificial intelligence to decide whether their case has merit, saying it is "not reliable for legal help”.