The Monte Cristo syndrome

Guantánamo: give evidence against other prisoners and we might let you out, one day ... As long as you're not too angry ... The new prosecution paradigm and the latest stitch-up ... Plus, the legal basis for drone killing of Americans without due process ... Roger Fitch - Our Man in Washington 

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Get your Roxon

Nicola Roxon has her nose in all corners of the AG's department ... Contrast with dear Robert McClelland could not be more stark ... A majority of women on the High Court is a distinct possibility ... Polly Peck files from Canberra 

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Have your questions developed a steady rhythm?

Transcript of proceedings foreshadows life under the new Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates ... Barristers required to meet competency standards ... Assessment panels and judicial evaluation ... The future has arrived ... Leverhulme's London Calling   

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Help - I'm in the same club as Eugene McGee

The Eugene McGee hit-run case was chillingly investigated by the ABC's Australian Story ... Police and lawyers mutual protection society hard at work ... McGee slips through the system ... The brain-snap defence ... Bitterness in the small club of the Adelaide legal establishment ... Barry Lane reports 

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Keddies' contempt appeal

Updated on Saturday, March 10, 2012 by Justinian

Keddies asks Court of Appeal to throw Justice Adams off their contempt case ... Complaints of "derision and scepticism" ... Basten JA says "unseemly exchanges" between bench and bar not uncommon ... Evidence seeking to contradict a court transcript rejected ... Conspiracy denied ... Brigit Morris reports 

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Balmain girls don't need to cry

Judicial and quasi-judicial appointments ... Much grandstanding about an "open and fair" system based on merit ... Yet party mates seem to make the grade without too many formalities ... Time for the NSW AG to get his "restoring faith" policy into action ... Mary Jerram's term as NSW Coroner coming up for renewal 

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Hits of the blitz

Case management regime rolls out at ACT Supremes … Extra money and judge allocated to backlog "blitz" … This month judgment delivered in a case after 39 months cogitation … Exclusive table of long-tail reserved judgments 

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Too much testosterone

Harrassment and bullying by lawyers ... It's time the big swinging dicks were pulled into line, so to speak ... Neil (Mr Ethics) Watt exposes the problem and outlines the solution ... Bully for him 

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File closed ... now move on

Keddies, again … Self-regulation protects the independence of the legal profession and allows the most flagrant breaches of ethical standards to be regarded as acceptable … Tracing the Tariq overcharging case and how all misconduct complaints found their way to the dust bin … Charging another three-quarters of the amount on top of what is acceptable is not gross overcharging ... Victim presses for inquiry into OLSC 

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Clutz perfects media management

Updated on Thursday, February 23, 2012 by Justinian

UPDATE ... Nailing down questioning reptiles ... Painful extraction of information about overseas excursions by prez of the NSW Law Society ... Vacancies looming on the Tasmanian Supremes ... The Smage lives to fight another day as $1 billion Indonesian class action thrown out 

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Drones are taking over

European governments oppose US claim to impose liability for overseas wrongs of foreign corporations ... Legal professional privilege threatened at Gitmo ... Congress wants drones buzzing around US skies ... Is conspiracy a war crime? ... Roger Fitch, Our Man in Washington, files this report 

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Barbarians at the gates

Lawyers Full-Employment Act revs-up as Rinehart rides to town … 11 Wentworth snaffles the Iron Lady's work … Five months of suppression orders secured by rosters of silks … Ferocious litigation ramped-up by overflowing coffers 

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Weather report from Blighty

Snowball chase on main street ... Free speech a danger for football manager ... Top Totty beer off in Commons' bar ... Knife victim stitched-up over trauma of giving testimony against boyfriend ... Sligo council's bullying monitor ... Leverhulme's London Calling 

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Life at the top

Judicial style ... The genteel, pukkah approach of the UK Supreme Court or the Assyrian assaults of the High Court ... At least in Australia you get a sense of where to pitch an argument ... Please welcome Abel Magwitch to Justinian's expanding fold of analysts and commentators 

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When you wish upon a Tarr

Tony Tarr's long and bumpy ride through academe and business ... Gravitating from one ivory tower to another ... Bridging the gap between money and scholarship ... From the Queensland Law Society to a global recognition ... Sir Terence O'Rort reports on a remarkable career 

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Keddies stuck in the stalls

Updated on Friday, February 10, 2012 by Justinian

Judge decides no reasonable person could think he was prejudiced against former Keddies' partners ... Stay also refused ... Contempt hearing against Keddies boys now set for February 16 ... Brigit Morris reporting from the NSW Supremes 

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Barristers required to divulge fees for Hong Kong "sittings"

Two Sydney barristers required to reveal their fees in overcharging case against Keddies … Allegations of multiple billing for the same work … Excessive charges and over-servicing 

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News from the broom cupboard

Shake-out of former Keddies' partners at Slater & Gordon … ACT bar breaches suppression order 

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A view from the East

In Hong Kong Percy Lo-Kit Chan watches on television the melee outside the Lobby restaurant on Australia Day and reflects on what happened when three students got close to the Vice Premier of the PRC ... Civil discourse also at a low ebb in the HKSAR 

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Biography underway for lion of the bar

Tom Hughes to be profiled in detail and at length in new book by Canberra historian ... Keddies still ducking and weaving - application for judge to step aside ... Barristers ordered to reveal their billing in Hong Kong PI cases ... Smallbone boned by bar 'n' grill ... Ashton v Pratt - Madison flirts with an appeal 

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