Screaming Lawyer » Lording It

Moving The Judges

admin — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 20:39:47 +0000

NBR’s Judge Jock (Anderson) reports he was rightly horrified by a decision of nincompoops and numbskulls to evict Court of Appeal judges from digs within the grand setting of the Auckland High Court. The now sort-of-but-not-quite-yet fulltime Auckland branch of the C of A – the nation’s judicial engine room – has been shunted away across town.

An Aussie View on The Wilson Affair

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 04:49:42 +0000

From “Justinian” publisher and SMH columnist Richard Ackland:

The solemn edifice of justice depends on the public having some sort of respect for and confidence in judges. That sounds like one of William Blackstone’s platitudinous pronouncements but it’s something the judiciary trots out frequently to remind everyone that they are ”in touch” yet remote.

So Who’s On The Legal Aid Rich List, Then?

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:53:00 +0000

It’s a list that is received with great expressions of doing the ‘public good’ and standing up for the underdog and all those other tiresome phrases that emerge like treacle from the lips of lawyers, but the recipients of the legal aid largesse (our words, certainly not theirs) are covered in this story and show, once again, the illustrious Charl Hirschfeld topping the charts. Interestingly we have Kensington Swan up there once again too, a large firm with international presence and all that . . slopping at the trough of the legally aided. Now what could that be about?

Painful Ted – Thomas That Is

admin — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 02:41:44 +0000

Justice Bill Wilson has an ally in his feisty friend Wellington lawyer John Tannahill who lept to the judge’s defence with a letter
to the ‘Dominion Post’ telling us that he endorsed what had already been written to the newspaper by retired solicitor general and
former High Court judge Richard Savage, who castigated Sir Edmund Thomas for relying on hearsay evidence of Jutice Wilson’s
alleged transgressions. Tannahill pulled fewer punches in his letter, not only saying that Sir Edmund had relied on double or
even triple hearsay, but that he was a “maverick judge” who had become “an utter pain” towards the end of his term. The comments
didn’t go down well with women who held high what Sir Edmund had done for complainants in sexual abuse cases. However, the Tannahill
comments were also pulled. His comments to me about Sir Edmund might have required the services of his or
Justice Wilson’s fastest horses to take him into the hills and away from Sir Edmund’s female fans.