WA Attorney General Quigley responds to criticism of his judicial appointments … Unfair to single out female solicitor appointees … Condemnation of anonymous insights … Unhappiness unabated … Delay dossier … Online advocacy for solicitors … A black swan moment … Theodora reports
Groper had plugged into an outcry from deep inside the WA bar about District Court Judge and former registrar Natalie Whitby being sent to the Supreme Court.
Our western field agent mentioned, almost in passing, that Justice Whitby is the wife of Quigley’s cabinet colleague, the Hon. Reece Whitby, Minister for Environment, Climate Action, Racing and Gaming, that she is a friend of the CJ’s wife and the top end of town, including the premier and the AG, were at her 50th birthday knees-up.
Quigley told Justinian:
“For the record I did not attend Justice Whitby’s birthday party or any other event hosted by the Whitbys.”
He added that all his appointments to the courts are made after the Solicitor General, Joshua Thomson SC, on behalf the government, has undertaken “wide consultation with the judiciary and the legal profession, including the WA Bar Association”.
Further:
“I have never appointed anyone who was opposed by the head of jurisdiction.”
As to Groper quoting an anonymous bar source who bemoaned the “lightweight” quality of appointments – i.e solicitors – the AG was incandescent:
Justinian’s confidential sources, snouts and tipsters are valued and their identity will always remain under seal.
Bar sources have told us that in recent times four silks knocked back offers of appointment to the WA Supremes during the solicitor general’s consultations.
As things stand at the moment 50 percent of the judges sitting in the general division of the WA Supreme Court are woman, and 50 percent on the District Court bench are also women.
The head of the District, Coroners and WA Family Courts are all women, so too the administrative tribunal.
It is understood judges on the Supreme Court are upset that Justices Jenni Hill and Larissa Strk have been criticised over delays in delivering judgments – when some of their male colleagues have been just as tardy.
We asked Chief Justice Peter Quinlan for a comment about this but heard nothing back by the time we went to press.
Judicial noses are also out of joint because they don’t know who is leaking information that undermines the “majesty of the law”. If only they knew the culprits they could give their submissions the rounds of the kitchen.
Meanwhile, complaints from the profession continue to arrive at our inbox.
The most recent claimed:
“Read your Whitby piece and can confirm as a legal practitioner in WA of 20+ years it’s all accurate. It’s perhaps the most obvious nepotistic appointment of late but Quigley has also stacked the District Court with mates and various connections …
“Appointments at all levels have become so ridiculous that it led to a complete breakdown in the relationship between the AG and the Chief Magistrate a couple of years ago.
“The AG kept appointing people the CM and his panel hadn’t seen fit to interview let along appoint.”
In response, AG Quigley told Justinian that the appointments he has made have been “competent and appropriate”.
Perth based FCFC Judge Allyson Ladhams, a former solicitor at the AGS, appointed by Madam Cash in August 2021, took a leisurely 17 months to deliver Mullan v Calold – an employment law dispute.
It was heard in September and October 2021 with a final submission in December 2021 and the judgment popped out on May 17, 2023.
In acknowledging the delay HH fortunately had listened to audio recordings of the evidence:
“However, it is appropriate to make some more general comments about the credibility of the lay witnesses, particularly given the submissions that both parties made in relation to this issue in their closing submissions. In setting out my views on credibility, I have had regard to the affidavits, transcript, the documentary evidence, my impression of the witnesses at the hearing and, in circumstances where there has been a delay in delivering judgment in this matter, a fresh review of the audio recordings of the lay witness evidence given at the hearing.”
The Building Appeals Board of Victoria is not immune from a touch of ennui.
Owners Corporation PS 419696X & Ors v Municipal Building Surveyor for the City of Melbourne took about 14 months to see the light of day – particularly troubling as it concerned whether a building’s fire safety was adequate – requiring a degree of urgency.
The thinking only took 109 pages. Maybe the BAB Victoria needs a boiler template for excuses.
Justice Trish Henry of the NSW Supremes, a former Mallesons’ partner, has just delivered her decision in Alexis v Masters, which was heard 17 months ago.
It was a probate case concerning the validity of two wills involving consideration of “suspicious circumstances”.
Among the most distressing delays is former NSW CA judge Ruth McColl’s ICAC findings in the Gladys Berejiklian case, aka Operation Keppel.
The investigation into Glad’s relationship with Dodgy Daryl Maguire MP while she shovelled bucket loads of money into his electorate started on October 1, 2021 and finished a month later.
Here we are 18 months further on, with the New South Wales election over more than two months ago, and still McColl is dithering over the “complexities”.
The dither has been so long that most people have forgotten what the investigation is about. When the report does arrive it will be in Ruth’s impenetrable prose, so largely indecipherable.
Meanwhile, the NSW Law Society is urging solicitors to sign-up to an online advocacy course, win some CPD points into the bargain and qualify to be judges, or at least run their own cases in court.
The horrors never cease.