Courts

The Chief Justice of the NSW Supreme Court has expressed concerns about a “slide in public respect” for institutions such as the court and the creeping phenomenon of “truth decay”.

The Supreme Court of Victoria has issued ground rules for deploying artificial intelligence in litigation, urging litigants to exercise “particular caution” when using ChatGPT and other generative AI tools to draft affidavits and witness statements.

Australia’s peak legal body has welcomed the injection of funds promised in Tuesday’s budget announcement for the appointment of extra federal judges to clear a backlog in migration and protection visa applications. But the funds allocated to legal assistance services is a “fraction” of what is needed, the Law Council said.

A County Court of Victoria judge has been found to have breached the standards of conduct generally expected of judicial officers in his handling of a rape trial, following a complaint by the state’s top prosecutor.

Federal Court Justice Anthony Besanko was praised as hard working, a “model of humility and generosity” and “masterful” during a farewell ceremony on Monday attended by a host of legal luminaries.

A recently appointed High Court judge has warned against state and federal courts competing to attract cases, expressing concerns the appearance of impartiality could be compromised if courts sought to “drum up business at the expense of defendants”. 

A leading commercial barrister who represented ASIC in its first fees-for-no-service case stemming from the banking royal commission has been appointed a judge on the NSW Supreme Court.

Two employment silks and a criminal barrister have been selected by the NSW government to serve on the state’s restored Industrial Court.

As the head of Maurice Blackburn’s class actions group he helped win hundreds of millions of dollars for claimants and shaped the jurisprudence around the practice. As the Victorian Supreme Court’s newest judge, Andrew Watson has promised to keep up the fight for fair.

The NSW Supreme Court has issued a practice note on forms of address that fails to invite parties to inform the court of their preferred pronouns, unlike two other state courts, one of which came under fire from ‘Harry Potter’ author JK Rowling last year.