How to tell if a judge is buried under a mountain of outstanding judgments? Their mood will say it all. A sure-fire way to prolong that hearing with a vexatious litigant? Engage them in dialogue. Here, Lawyerly shares a High Court judge’s war stories and tips for new members of the bench. But what weight to give them? That’s a matter for you, he says.
A litigant in an estate dispute dropped his lawyers and filed a notice to the court naming Dentons Australia as his new firm of solicitors. Unhappily for him he made two mistakes: filing the notice himself, and apparently failing to tell anyone at Dentons he had hired them.
Victoria’s judicial watchdog has dropped its investigation of a complaint against Supreme Court Justice Lex Lasry by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Kerri Judd SC, who accused the judge of making comments attacking her professional integrity.
A judge’s decision to place little weight on the character reference of a defendant that read like the work of ChatGPT should make lawyers think twice before employing artificial intelligence to author material intended for the court’s eyes.
Former Supreme Court of Victoria Justice Lex Lasry served with the “highest standards of integrity”, and the circumstances that led to his resignation from the bench were “regrettable and extraordinary”, the president of Australia’s association of judges has said as reports emerge that the DPP has made a complaint about a second judge.
The DPP’s complaint to Victoria’s judicial watchdog that prompted the shock resignation of Supreme Court Justice Lex Lasry was an abuse of process, experts say, and the judge’s decision to step down was a “deeply saddening end to a stellar judicial career”. But the Office of Public Prosecutions has strongly rejected the claim.
A high-profile criminal judge in Victoria has stunned a courtroom with his announcement from the bench that he would resign after learning of a DPP complaint to the state’s judicial commission over his handling of a case linked to the Eastern Freeway accident that killed four police officers.
The High Court has agreed to step in to hear an appeal of a ruling that put a Federal Circuit and Family Court judge on the hook for a man’s false imprisonment.
The NSW Supreme Court has welcomed its newest judge, who was praised by his peers as “universally popular” for his warm personality and among the best tax silks in the country.
The Federal Court has welcomed two Victorian senior barristers to the bench, including a silk who assisted in the Royal Commission into Crown’s Melbourne casino.