Rabid lawyers fired-up by public health orders … Freedom … Sovereignty … Court ruling claimed to invite anarchy … Warfare among litigation crowdfunders … Excitable foot soldiers … Jeremy Bentham on rights and public peace … Alan Zheng reports
Buckley’s first call to fame was in July 2020 when he encouraged Victorians to go without face masks and challenge the mask mandate in court.
When not enough of his followers took up the call, Buckley entered the ring himself, pioneering a new crowdfunding-based approach to litigation which has accrued close to $1 million dollars.
In September last year, the NSW Law Society fired its first warning salvo, raising concerns about Buckley’s conduct in a private Facebook group and various Facebook posts which diminished public confidence in the administration of justice.
Buckley was unfazed. If anything, it gave him renewed motivation to escalate his anti-vax crusade over the next few months. To no avail. He notched up only losses in Kimber (now appealed), Barber and Arnold.
While your correspondent has been attempting to write a thesis, Buckley has been busy.
In August, he suggested that residents could outflank LGA restrictions in NSW by altering their registered business addresses with ASIC.
Facebook comment sections also became the site of an internet war of words between Buckley and Peter Maatouk, principal of Maatouk’s Law Group.
Maatouk had been crowdfunding his own class action to challenge COVID-19 mandates and he found himself in competition with Buckley’s efforts.
With low barriers of entry into the anti-vax class actions market, crowdfunding sites have enabled law firms to test the waters and gauge possible litigation interest without sacrificing more than a few minutes making an account and advertising fundraisers over social media.
In a conversation after Maatouk raised $300,000, Buckley asked Maatouk when the class action would be filed, suggesting Maatouk “better hurry up before people starting lodging complaints against you with the Legal Services Commissioner”.
Maatouk announced to his Facebook followers that he would bring defamation proceedings against Buckley, stating:
“I have integrity and I have honesty and I have an impeccable record with the law society. So you know those in glass houses, god help you Mr Buckley because you have a lot of explaining to do. I just hope you have assets. I doubt you do. But I hope you do. Because I’m going to take them all off you by the time I’m finished with you for your defamation against me and my good firm.”
In a page out of a legal drama, Maatouk said:
“I will come after you one by one. You know who you are. You all know who you are and you open your mouth and you wanna talk shit, you’re gonna go down.”
The moment of truth for Buckley came in October. Following Justice Beech-Jones’ decision in the challenge to the NSW public health orders in Kassam (now appealed), Buckley tweeted:
“So Justice Beech-Jones today said that no one in NSW has any rights. No one has the right to body integrity. He basically said it is ok to kill anyone you like. No one has any rights.”
In response to a Twitter user who asked if they were correct in assuming that one can “cut the Testicles of pedos seeing as they don’t have rights protected by the govt”, Buckley tweeted:
“You’re correct based on today’s judgment. Go for it. Pedos have no rights.”
If Bentham wanted any empirical proof that rights have an antisocial quality in the wrong hands, he could find no better evidence than Buckley’s tweets.
Various users asking Buckley whether, in light of Kassam, they could “go on a rampage … inject heroin into people … rape anyone … prank [Justice Beech-Jones] 24/7”, were met with confirmatory answers.
Not to be hastened by “a number of complaints from the public and other lawyers“, the Law Society suspended Buckley for the period ending June 30, 2022 on the grounds that he is unable to fulfil the inherent requirements of an Australian legal practitioner.
Buckley has promptly launched a new fundraiser – this time – challenging the Law Society’s suspension of his ticket.
His foot soldiers have decried the suspension as a “crime against humanity” and “political corruption”. Among the more novel suggestions are commenters rallying around a post seeking to “set up a new law society of New South Wales. Built on Truth and Liberty”.
At the time of writing, the fundraiser has already tallied $22,201 of its humble $1,000,000 goal. The money is to be used on a “junior and senior barrister, court filing fees and other third party disbursements”. Oh, and also, “no refunds are possible”.
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.