High Court shuffle

Not only will the treasury benches be rejigged after September 14, so too will the High Court ... Soapy Brandis' vanity bauble ... Legal outsourcing in Van Diemen's Land ... Homework for litigants ... Love at the Lubyanka ... Stand-off between Wayne's World and the WA AG ... Oz legal affairs section wilting ... Meritorious appointment caught-up in Pearce attack ... Courts discuss social media policy, but keep the twitterers at bay 

Susan Crennan: a precious gift to Abbott

WORD on the Rialto is that Susan Crennan is likely to leave the High Court once an Abbott government has its backside safely on the treasury leather. 

In doing so she will be presenting the incoming conservative regime with a most precious gift - her job. 

By then Crennan will have put in over eight years as a High Court bencher plus a year and a bit on the Federal Court between 2004 and 2005. 

Both appointments were made in the Howard era. 

In the meantime there's going to be lots of speculation about the name of the replacement Soapy Brandis "QC" takes to cabinet. 

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TALKING of Soapy, the Queenslander was predictably fast out of the blocks rebranding himself from SC to "QC". 

He was never a SC appointed from the Queensland bar's list, rather he was gonged at the pleasure of Chief Justice Daphnis de Jersey. 

Now the shadow AG has grasped for the bauble of Queens Counsel. 

Meanwhile, Daphnis has been making some weighty law and order noises that would please the throw-backs in charge of the Queensland government. 

See: Stepping backwards out of the dark  

See: CJ's opinions collide with the law  

The steamy climes of Queensland and the Northern Territory are now the only two Australian fiefdoms that sport the monarchical post-nominals. [See reader's correction below, Ed.]

They've also been restored across the gully in the Land of the Strangled Vowel. 

Dan O'Gorman SC from Brisneyland, one of the four who had the self-condfidence not to be lured by the paltry bauble, said the reintroduction of QCs will subject the legal profession in Queensland, "to ridicule in the community generally". 

"It sends the wrong message to Asia, namely that the state of Queensland is a relic of its colonial past." 

One of the spurious reasons advanced by the boy-wonder AG of Queensland, Jarrod Bjelke, was that:  

"Queensland silks now have the edge internationally, particularly in Asia where the use of QC is preferred." 

Hong Kong and Singapore now appoint SCs. 

Phillip Boulton, the NSW bar 'n' grill's grand fromage: 

"The office of QC is an anachronism. We have moved on and there is no appetite at all among my colleagues at the bar council to do anything at all to join Queensland." 

Apart from a few devoted Queen's men at VicBar, the bar council south of the Murray also doesn't have much of an appetite for this vain flourish. 

Despite Soapy bearing the shiny symbol of professional distinction in the law, in politics it's a different story. 

I see he was listed among the "duds" in Crikey's performance review of Abbott's front bench. 

The organ's Canberra sage said of Brandis: 

"With repeated examples of poor judgment, including attempts to intervene in the Craig Thomson case and hiding behind parliamentary privilege to claim the Prime Minister was a 'crook', there are real questions over Brandis' capacity and temperament to fulfil the requirements of the sensitive role of attorney general, especially given his hypertrophied sense of own legal wisdom."

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Natalia Pearn: killed in accident with the DPPHOW long can Taswegian solicitor general Leigh Sealy be burdened with the additional work of being the state's DPP? 

There's still no word on the fate of local DPP Timsy Ellis. 

The chief prosecutor was involved in a terrible car crash in March on the Apple Isle's Midlands highway, near Lonely Banks, in which Launceston woman Natalia Pearn, 27, was killed. 

Police claim that the DPP's blue Mercedes Benz travelling south crossed over onto the north bound lanes and collided with Ms Pearn's Toyota hatch. 

Timsy himself was badly injured and I understand nearly lost a leg. 

His wife, Anita Smith, president of the Guardianship and Administration Board, suffered a broken collar-bone. 

Such is the heft, influence and fame of Tim Ellis that there's been a good deal of outsourcing going on. 

The DPP's job was outsourced to Sealy. Advice to the Tasmanian police has been outsourced to a deputy DPP from NSW, John Pickering SC, and the coronial inquiry has been outsourced to Victoria's chief magistrate and state coroner, Ian Gray. 

Things move at a steady pace in Van Diemen's land. One of the coppers involved, senior constable Kelly Cordwell, told the Daily Rupert on May 28 that the investigation was likely to take about six months. 

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Anne Demack: write me an essay

JUDGES setting homework for litigants - what an exciting innovation. 

It was the brainwave of Federal Magistrate (as she then was) Anne Demack, now Judge Demack of the Federal Circus Court (Qld tent). 

She ordered a mother in a parenting dispute to write a "1,500 word essay on what she had learned at the Parenting Orders Program and how she is incorporating such information into everyday life". 

In an appeal to the full court the mother submitted that Madge Demack did not pay sufficient regard to her essay in making final parenting orders that favoured the father. 

Apparently, the idea was to allow the mother to explain how she had "moved a long way" in her attitude towards the childrens' father. 

The full Family Court thought the order to file and serve a 1,500 word essay was "undesirable and had the potential to create difficulties". 

"It might lead to misapprehension that the court was prescribing some form of therapy or educational task for the mother …" 

Heaven forbid. 

Anyway, the parenting orders were allowed to stand. 

Ms Demack was mentioned in news reports more than a dozen years ago, concerning nepotism on the Qld bench. 

Former attorney general Fat Matt Foley called for judges to stop hiring family members as associates. 

A new protocol for the appointment of judicial staff sought to open jobs to a wider gene pool. 

At the time Justice Alan Demack of the Rockhampton Supremes had young Anne as his associate and kept her there even after the court drew-up the appointments protocol. 

He was later appointed Queensland's first Integrity Commissioner. 

His job was to dispense advice to ministers and senior public servants on conflicts of interests and other ethical and integrity issues.  

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The Lubyanka - formerly the SpigeltentIF lawyers have noticed increased amounts either of judicial charm or of judicial tetchiness, put it down to love. 

Lurve has indeed broken out in the Queens Square Lubyanka. It has leapt several floor to embrace occupants of the Federal and Supreme Courts - demonstrating once again that Eros knows no bounds. 

Its complicated, as is invariably the case when happiness comes knocking. 

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STILL no resolution of the stand-off between the WA Supremes and thickset attorney general Michael Mischin. 

Wayne Martin CJ was all set to start web-streaming important and interesting cases. The stocks were set and the funds for equipment and facilities were on hand from the AG's Department. 

The CJ proposed that the appeal by the prosecution in the Lloyd Rayney murder case would be an ideal candidate to kick-off the web-streaming agenda. 

Then Mischin intervened. The court could not web-stream the Rayney appeal or anything else, he declared. 

Last month a media statement came from Wayne's World.  

"The position of the attorney general on this issue represents a threat to the independence of the judiciary in this state. 

He has expressed his opposition to web-streaming of court proceedings, making it clear that he considers it neither appropriate nor desirable. 

It is for the courts, and not the attorney general, to determine the manner and form in which the public will be given access to proceedings in the courts ...

The attorney general has used his ability to block the modest resources required for this proposal as a means of imposing his personal views on how courts should conduct their business, thereby usurping the role of the judiciary." 

Sounds like they get on like a house on fire. 

Even the ultra-discreet judges' trade union, the Judicial Conference of Australia, weighed-in with a statement deploring Mischin's meddling. 

Mischin is a former prosecutor and the WA DPP has fought some less than credible cases in less than credible ways, e.g. Mallard, plus Fazzari, Martinez and Pereiras. 

Could it be that it sticks in the craw of this former prosecutor for appeal judges to have tossed out prized DPP convictions?  

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SAD to see The Australian's legal affairs section wilting. 

Hardly a sustaining advertisement to adorn the leaden text. 

The opposition at the Australian Financial Review is far more on the pace with stories and analysis ... and ads. 

The restructuring at News Corp will see its rags spun off on their own (although in Australia they'll still be cradled in the arms of the Foxxy TV). 

It means that loss-leading organs like The Australian will have to batten down the hatches and toss overboard those acres of newsprint that are a drag. 

We hear unfortunate tidings could be in store for Oz Legal. 

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Minister Pearce: stressed

FORMER Freehills partner and now NSW Minister for Finance and Other Bits and Pieces, Greg Pearce, is in all sorts of strife. 

After allegations of being pie-eyed in parliament, using the parliamentary travel service for private jaunts, and not disclosing his pecuniary interests, the minister is off on a month's leave and is out of action for the State budget, which you'd think was a bit no-no for a finance minister. 

He said he feels "stressed and exhausted". 

The Daily Smellograph has been chasing the minister who, when it comes to dealing with the media, is as charmless as they come. 

The paper's state political hand, Andrew Clennell, seems to want Fatty O'Barrell to sack the sepulchral Pearce. 

In a blistering attack on Monday (June 17) Clennell named various people Pearce had appointed to government jobs. They were either from Freehills and/or acquaintances of the minister or Liberal Party hacks.

The paper suggested Kim Garling's appointment as the WorkCover Independent Review Officer was some sort of insider job because Garling is married to Pearce's secretary, Pam Williams. 

I don't know if you could poke a stick at Pearce's other appointments, but no one could fault Garling as the WIRO. 

He has worked in the area, has a wealth of experience, is a former prez of the Law Society, and is truly independent. 

If ever there was a meritorious appointment, this would be it. 

It's weird. The Smello goes onto say: 

"There is no suggestion any of the appointees was lacking in merit." 

What then is the point? 

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FRIDAY (June 14) saw a big Australian Institute of Judicial Administration Jamboree in Sydney dealing with a hot button issue - social media and the courts. 

What was so adorable was that the event couldn't be reported "due to the sensitive nature of the material discussed" and requests from some of the speakers that their precious words be kept behind closed doors. 

This must be a world first - a conference on social media that was off limits to the social media.