Author adminPosted on Categories civil litigation, Judiciary, litigation 1 Comment on Judge Salvatore Vasta appeals false imprisonment decision
An appeal has been filed on behalf of Judge Salvatore Vasta following a ground-breaking decision which held him personally liable for false imprisonment of a man who appeared before him in a family law matter.
In August, Judge Vasta became the first Judge in Australian history to be successfully sued for a decision he made as a judge.
The suit arose from a decision of Vasta made on 6 December 2018, when he sentenced a self-represented man to a period of imprisonment for a period of twelve (12) months.
Only six days later, Vasta J agreed to a stay of his own Order resulting in the man’s release, and it was reversed on appeal. But the man had suffered serious psychological damage from being imprisoned and later sued.
The case turned on the issue of judicial immunity and whether it was sufficiently wide to protect Judge Vasta from being held liable.
Justice Michael Wigney found that Judge Vasta could not rely on judicial immunity because he was an inferior court judge who acted without jurisdiction.
This matter could have a long way to run. There is a good chance this case could end up in the High Court, which could provide a binding decision on the scope of judicial immunity at common law in Australia.
Author adminPosted on Categories Judiciary, Liberty 1 Comment on Judge Vasta successfully sued for false imprisonment
“Can I sue the judge?” is the question some lawyers might be asked by a fuming client, and which can be categorised as legal locker room talk. Such an idea is almost always keenly hosed down by the lawyer in response, as the client’s only recourse is to appeal, no matter how wrong the judge is or might have been.
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Author adminPosted on Categories Administrative law, Criminal law Leave a comment on Shane Drumgold SC seeks judicial review of Sofronoff findings
Outgoing ACT Director of Prosecutions Shane Drumgold SC, who resigned following damning findings made against him by Walter Sofronoff KC in an inquiry report, is now challenging those findings.
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Author adminPosted on Categories Criminal law, Legal profession, Liberty 2 Comments on Calls for more inquiries into prosecutorial conduct as Drumgold resigns
The resignation of Shane Drumgold SC as ACT Director of Prosecutions is to be welcomed. As ACT Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury noted while accepting Shane Drumgold’s resignation, Drumgold’s role as director of public prosecutions had become “no longer tenable”.
Drumgold will now likely be fighting to save his legal career. There’s also the possibility of criminal charges.
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Author adminPosted on Categories Criminal law, Legal profession 2 Comments on The drums roll for Drumgold’s legal career
Walter Sofronoff KC’s damning findings against ACT chief prosecutor Shane Drumgold SC could spell the end of Drumgold’s legal career.
This comes after it was reported that Bruce Lehrmann will sue the ACT Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions over his prosecution. The Prosecution was dropped after a hung jury.
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Author adminPosted on Categories Criminal law 2 Comments on Bruce Lehrmann to sue ACT Office of Prosecutions
It has been reported that former Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann will sue the ACT Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions over his prosecution.
This follows the ACT government receiving the Sofronoff report examining misconduct in the prosecution case which is expected to contain damning findings against Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold.
The report has not been released to the public, for reasons that have not been fully explained.
Lehrmann alleges that Drumgold attempted to withhold police documents from his defence lawyers, read Higgins’ confidential counselling notes and undermined Lehrmann’s presumption of innocence.
As we have noted, the politicisation of this case has led to this debacle.
Author adminPosted on Categories Human rights, Liberty 2 Comments on The federal government’s social media big brother bill
“It is not difficult to deprive the great majority of independent thought. But the minority who will retain an inclination to criticize must also be silenced….Public criticism or even expressions of doubt must be suppressed because they tend to weaken pubic support….When the doubt or fear expressed concerns not the success of a particular enterprise but of the whole social plan, it must be treated even more as sabotage.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
“The principle that the end justifies the means is in individualist ethics regarded as the denial of all morals. In collectivist ethics it becomes necessarily the supreme rule.”
― Friedrich Hayek
“It is one of the saddest spectacles of our time to see a great democratic movement support a policy which must lead to the destruction of democracy and which meanwhile can benefit only a minority of the masses who support it. Yet it is this support from the Left of the tendencies toward monopoly which make them so irresistible and the prospects of the future so dark.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
“Our faith in freedom does not rest on the foreseeable results in particular circumstances but on the belief that it will, on balance, release more forces for the good than for the bad.”
― Friedrich A. Hayek
The Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023 (“The Bill“) if passed will allow the government to monitor social media content it disapproves of and to conscript social media companies to do their dirty work of curtailing such content through the Australian Communications and Media Authority (“ACMA”).
As such, the Bill represents a dangerous threat to freedom of online discourse.
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Author adminPosted on Categories Defamation 2 Comments on Ben Roberts-Smith appeals defamation defeat
Highly decorated former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG sued on 16 media stories that collectively alleged among other things that he had murdered civilians in Afghanistan and committed an act of domestic violence against a woman in the Federal Court of Australia.
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Author adminPosted on Categories Human rights Leave a comment on Comedian Isaac Butterfield taken to Court over offensive jokes
Newcastle based YouTube personality Isaac Butterfield is being taken to Court for making jokes which some people found offensive.
Long time readers of this website may not be surprised to know that the pro-pedophile ‘Human Rights’ Commission has been involved in this push to supress the human right of free speech.
In this topsy-turvy world in which we live in, don’t be surprised if Liberty Victoria, supposedly a civil liberties organisation, sides with those who are complaining against Isaac Butterfield’s civil liberties.
“War is peace / freedom is slavery [and] ignorance is strength”, as George Orwell warned us many many years ago.
Author adminPosted on Categories civil litigation, litigation, Personal Injury, Professional fees 2 Comments on Sterling Law secures indemnity costs order against QBE
Background
For the last 4 years, we doggedly pursued a claim on behalf of a client who was kicked by a horse.
By the time our client saw a solicitor of our firm, he had been denied WorkCover because on review it was determined he was not a worker within section 11 of the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003. Things were looking very grim. It seemed that there was no way for our client to access compensation or any damages.
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