Red Mess
A thoughtful reader asks: “Given that the Catholic Church is the subject of litigation in the courts, should the judges etc be turning out for the Red Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral on Feb 3?”
An excellent question which has been referred to our panel of Red Mess experts, who advise:
This quaint tradition is a feature on the Catholic Church’s annual calendar of smoke and mirrors.
It’s been going on in Sydney since before WW11 and began in the Old Dart in about 1310 and is now well past its use-by date. Other major cities around the country put on similar parades to mark the opening of law term.
There’s lots of schmoozing between the clergy, judges and faithful members of the profession with tea and nourishment served after the mess.
Since the Catholic Church, in particular, is a frequent respondent to sexual abuse proceedings in the courts, the judges should consider keeping the clerics at arms length.
This might be hard for the Supreme Court of NSW which traditionally has been a job placement destination for old boys from St Ignatius College.
Cardinal George Pell only recently was found by the National Redress Scheme to have molested and raped two young victims – a finding made on the basis that the attacks were “reasonably likely”.
The news story about the redress payments, broken by ABC reporter Louise Milligan, has been removed from Aunty’s website after receiving a letter from church solicitor Richard Leder at the law shop Wotton Kearney.
This concerns a civil case in Victoria against the Catholic Church in relation to further allegations involving Pell which is expected to commence next month. A spokesmodel for the broadcaster told us:
“The story has been temporarily removed pending the completion of separate court proceedings that are yet to be in the public domain and then will be reinstated. The ABC stands by Louise Milligan’s reporting and the story.”
Simon Fieldhouse
When we last checked, The Grauniad has also closed the story online, but it’s still there on the website of the Nine fishwraps.
Then there’s the special problem of Archbishop Anthony Fisher in Sydney, a great defender of Pell – so much so that in an unhinged rant last year he said that the Cardinal had been convicted and jailed as a “martyr of the corrupt Victorian legal system”.
He went so far as to suggest that Pell’s prosecution and conviction was all down to “culture wars” and “wokery”, he fumed.
Surely, judges should give this troubled priest a wide berth.
Hermit Kingdom
The arrival of Chis Shenanigan, Van Diemen Land’s new chief justice, all the way from WA Bar ‘n’ Grill, went off like a damp squib.
There was a swearing in at Gov House with a clutch of devotees in attendance and then a welcome ceremony at the court with speeches, accompanied by lavish gushes of pocket moistening, which had the calming effect of Mogadon.
The locals were particularly glazed as the CJ banged on about Murray Chambers in Perth, where he hung his barrister’s shingle. Importantly, all the grumblings and rumblings about Shenanigan’s appointment were steadfastly ignored.
The arrangements for the law term church service were as elaborate as Louis XVI’s court, with pecking orders and seating arrangements according to status and precedent.
Swearing in of the Chief Justice of Tasmania
Medals were de rigueur, which would be a comfort to Major General Melick from the Integrity Commission, even though his KC bauble was still in the post.
Unhappily, there were no sightings of female associates lap dancing with judges at the practitioners after-party.
Sia stays
Traffic from the Federal Court indicates that Sia Lagos, CEO and Principal Registrar, will have another two year stint before the mast, partly to ensure stability in an election year.
However, it is understood that she will need to “transition out” of the job during that time.
This does not neatly fit with CJ Mortimer’s statement to the Financial Review in July 2024:
“In the first half of 2025, there will be an open and transparent process for the appointment or reappointment of the chief executive officer and principal registrar role. It is obviously inappropriate to say any more at this stage.”
Rats and mice
Giles with George: costs should be paid into court
The split between celebrity cavoodle litigant Gina Edwards and her defamation lawyers at the law shop Giles/George has been distressing.
Edwards, a Sydney barrister, was handed aggravated damages of $150,000 by Justice Michael Wigney after he found the Nine Network accused her of stealing the cavoodle.
Since then it’s been all downhill, with a costs dispute of Titanic proportions. Wigney had ordered costs on a lump sum basis to be determined by a referee, something he now regrets because it has turned into a “dog’s breakfast”.
Giles/George want the costs lodged with the court pending determination of a lien.
The Nine people took issue with the referee’s report saying there had been reliance on misleading information concerning the hourly and daily rates charged by Edwards’ senior counsel, Celebrity Sue Chrysanthou.
Nine is saying $120,000 or thereabouts is in dispute, mainly concerning an uplift in fees.
Wigney thought the issues seemed to involve “rats and mice”.
Edwards told the court that Giles/George was holding the damages awarded in a non-interest bearing trust account and that it was against professional rules for the shop to take legal action for the recovery of costs when she had an outstanding complaint against them with the Law Society.
On it goes with another round on March 3.
Enter retired Melbourne barrister Geoffrey Gibson, no slough himself on defamation matters, who observed in his blog, With Compliments …
“All lawyers should be ashamed. A petty tiff over a petty insult, if litigated at all, should be determined in a morning by a magistrate with no prior hearings, pleadings, or witness statements. Damages could in fact capped at say, $20,000, and costs at, say, $5,000. That would still make any such action at best problematic, but damages at about twice the level of average earnings for such a trifle are absurd, and costs of $1,000,000 are obscene.
All we lawyers should therefore be ashamed … Jack Cade may have had the answer.”
Canine corner
And a celebrity pooch has taken centre stage at Sydney’s Wardell Chambers.
Head of chambers John Argius SC is pictured on his profile with an unnamed dog that wears a similiar facial expression.
Agius SC in chambers with unnamed companion
Lindsay Ellison SC, also at Wardell, declares he has “the memory of a dog”. His profile continues:
“He has no interest in sailing, skiing, golf, cooking or learning a foreign language and does not own a winery. He has not the slightest intention of walking the el Camino de Santiago. He does not wish to achieve a work/life balance. Lindsay doesn’t smoke. Nor does he drink tea, coffee or alcohol. He eats too much chocolate. He knows nothing about cars or sport. He is one of the least interesting persons you might ever meet.”
Free speech at the bar
Nicholas Poynder, the barrister who sent pointed Tweets about the war in Gaza, has been birched with a reprimand by the NSW Bar Council after it made a finding of unprofessional conduct.
Among other things, Poynder Tweeted that “Zionists … are a stain on humanity which needs to be wiped out”.
It could be said that Poynder has strong opinions about Israel and the IDF. Robert Gregory, the CEO of the far-right Australian Jewish Association lobbed a complaint to the OLSC about these opinions. This was followed by a similar complaint about the same Tweets from David Ossip of the NSW Jewish Board of deputies.
Last February Lord Moloch’s stenographers at The Israelian gave Poynder the full treatment, with Gregory demanding the bar cancel him from the jam roll.
Justinian had a report here … with Poynder’s rejoinder to the accusations here …
Poynder is a former Australian Human Rights Commission legal officer and now practises at the Tasmanian bar.
The president of the Australian Jewish Association is David Adler, a prominent member of the ultra conservative anti-Voice outfit known as Advance and the nutter who suggested media personality Stan Grant was doing “black face” and had artificially darkened his skin, and wondered aloud whether Senator Lidia Thorpe was at all Aboriginal.
Many of the Jewish lobby groups, including the Executive Council of Jewry, the Australian Israel Jewish Affairs Council, and the Jewish Council of Australia have said the AJA is unrepresentative of mainstream Australian Jews, that it is “extremist” and “fringe”.
In one Tweet, the AJA referred to pro-Palestine encampments at university campuses as “Nazi encampments”.
This did not deter the Bar Council from treating Mr Gregory seriously.
Neither the NSW Bar or the Australian Bar Association have commented on the ICJ’s preliminary finding concerning Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and the ICC’s arrest warrants for PM Netanyahu and former defence minister Gallant on charges of war crimes.
Bar Council’s reprimand of Nicholas Poynder …
Delhi delays
Justinian, among others, incessantly grizzles about slow-coach judges and the delays in the delivery of judgments.
However, when it comes to a tortoise-like pace, the Supreme Court of India puts us to shame. At least the court keeps everyone up-to date with an online Justice Clock that keeps ticking with a daily tally of the worsening backlog.
From what can be discovered there is a Chief Justice who has to retire in May. The mandatory judicial retirement age in India is 65. There are 32 justices who are required to deliver 81,417 judgments, but since we last looked that number has hurtled upwards.