12 July 2010

Crackdown on naughty lawyers

| johnboy
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The ABC brings word that the Law Society is getting tough and actually refusing to re-issue practicing certificates to Canberra’s worst lawyers.

Five more Canberra lawyers are facing allegations of misbehaviour.

The ACT Law Society has already refused to reissue practising certificates to two lawyers.

The Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal had earlier upheld serious complaints against them.

The society’s president Athol Opas says more lawyers are before the tribunal but he denies there is an problem in the profession.

Sadly they can’t yet be named or their offences detailed.

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f off – Legal Profession Act 2006!!!!

That story is simply BS of how the ACT law society are attempting to get credit for doing something – years after sitting on their hands for another payout.. this is a bit late for many who have aleady taken their lives

Others are living from day to day after being exposed to criminal acts by wonders such as LA Legal Aid ACT

Many will never know they were dudded by the ACT Government and places like ACT law society simply because these guys work hand in hand to prevent any court action against them selves while getting paid over $100k to invent a system which does nothing to address the mess and death which resulted in their own fraud (ACT law society does only one thing – look after its self – nothing to do with actual law)

Professionals don’t rat on each other.
It’s the first thing they teach you at uni.
Where would it end, where would it end.

There was an article in the CT yesterday by Tim O’Dwyer ( a lawyer) talking about the prepondernace of lawyers in politics – the largest professional group in Cabinet and in Parliament. He didn’t make mention of the ACT, but it wouldn’t be drawing a long bow to assume the same here.

I suspect that professional clubs (lawyers, doctors, accountants, psychologists etc) all hate the thought of names of offenders being published because of the shame it brings to their professions – references to an unknown and anonymous person isn’t quite the same as a real person with a name and a photo in the paper. Sometimes there is the question of protection for victims, but it’s hard to fathom where this would be relevant except in the case of sexual offences.

Bring back Derryn Hinch!

Affirmative Action Man3:14 pm 13 Jul 10

I read in the CT that Mr Corbell had changed the law relating to the AA Tribunal so that the lawyers cannot be named.

Affirmative Action Man said :

Great work by the ACT Government to change the laws so that the media cannot publish the names of those lawyers involved.

Stanhope & Corbell have an obvious commitment to open Government and public scrutiny. Kim Jong Il would be proud.

So have they actually changed the laws and if so, when?

Judging from this case, djk, mass murder, rape, using weapons of mass destruction and waging genocide would barely make the list.

OzChick said :

^ I’m surprised there isn’t more of them. Half of the the solicitors on that list do property conveyancing. Thanks for that link djk.

I believe there isn’t more of them because a) the list/legislation is fairly new, and b) it has to be a fairly serious issue before they actually name and shame them.

Affirmative Action Man9:36 am 13 Jul 10

Great work by the ACT Government to change the laws so that the media cannot publish the names of those lawyers involved.

Stanhope & Corbell have an obvious commitment to open Government and public scrutiny. Kim Jong Il would be proud.

“Sadly they can’t yet be named or their offences detailed.”

I’m sure some on the RA will find away to find out and post it here (rightly or wrongly) 😉

I’ve recently had a lot of trouble dealing with my lawyer. I didn’t really know what I could do about the lack of service I was receiving, so I decided to deal with it similarly to how I would if a sales person was behaving the same way – I called the ACT Law Society about my options, and the the law firms Head Office in Melbourne, advising them that I had already called ACTLS.

The next day I received a written letter of apology from the firm and my lawyer, a personal phone call from the Client Liaison Officers in Canberra and Melbourne and another call from my lawyer offering his sincerest apologies.

^ I’m surprised there isn’t more of them. Half of the the solicitors on that list do property conveyancing. Thanks for that link djk.

georgesgenitals7:08 pm 12 Jul 10

It’s a clear case of the fox guarding the henhouse.

In #1 post above, I meant self-regulation, not registration.

The Law Society does maintain a (public) register of solicitors/lawyers who have gotten into trouble since relevant legislation came in:
http://www.actlawsociety.com.au/CMS_Pages.cfm?MenuIDNO=68
(click on surname for details of orders, sadly no gory details of what actually happened.)

I wonder if Phillip Edwin Bailey is one of them? Because thats how he rolls…..

http://the-riotact.com/?p=22858

Slightly off topic, but heard this guy on the radio this morning saying that the ACT Law Society has 1400 members. While a direct comparison may not be appropriate, the ACT has less than 400 GPs. So you may not be able to see a GP, but at least you can sue one.

If you want to know what has (finally) prompted the Law Society to do something about one of these germs, have a look at http://www.acat.act.gov.au/decisions.php?action=decision&id=69&PHPSESSID=e3cced0a023683e8a9ca96b0a11b8493.

It makes you wonder just what these parasites need to do for their professional body to do something about their their lowlife members. The Law Society (and AMA likewise) does nothing until such time as the actions of these people are so disgraceful that something has to be done.

The sooner we move away from self-registration of lawyers (and doctors) the better for everyone. Until these lowlifes are publicly named, and action is taken when they first start to offend rather than when they are serial offenders, the better for everyone, includin g the porfession they belong to.

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