Disability pensioner who applied to be admitted to the Tasmanian jam roll ordered to pay costs … Application for admission withdrawn … Still, the objectors wanted their costs because they were acting in the “public interest” … No evidence about how much work they did … Applicant from out of town
The board and the society filed objections to the admission of Dean Consenza, claiming he was not fit and proper. Later he filed a notice of discontinuance, yet his objectors still wanted their costs.
In an affidavit Consenza provided a lot of information about his eventful background, some of which included:
“The usual practice on applications for admission, even where successful, is for the applicant to be ordered to pay the regulator’s costs …”
Consenza was told that if he withdrew his application within seven days the board and the society would not seek an order for costs. Otherwise, it would be “in the public interest” that the applicant be ordered to pay their costs.
Nonetheless, Blow CJ got to grips with the costs question. The board’s funding comes from the Solicitors’ Guarantee Fund, while the society is largely funded by its members. The CJ said:
“It performs a great number of functions for the benefit of the public … It acts in the public interest, as well as in the interest of the legal profession, in scrutinising admission applications and sometimes objecting to them.”
There doesn’t seem to be any cases where there has been an order for costs, either made or refused, where an application has been withdrawn.
The CJ thought the stance taken by the objectors was reasonable. Consenza had been “warned” that the costs of a defended hearing “would probably have been enormous”.
“It would not be right to require them to bear the cost of performing their public duties. It follows the costs should be borne by Mr Consenza” – i.e. costs of the originating application and the interlocutory proceedings.
On the other hand, Consenza is a twice bankrupt disability support pensioner and there was no information before the court about his assets “save that they do not preclude him from receiving his pension”.