Former Supreme Court judge dies in tractor accident

Was this email forwarded to you?

Sign up for our free daily email newsletter at headnote.com.au

Daily wrap  

• Tributes flow for former Supreme Court Justice Malcolm Blue KC who died in tractor accident - ABC News

  “Mr Blue retired last month after servicing the state's highest court for 13 years.”
   

• Bruce Lehrmann gets extra time to appeal defamation trial loss as court hears of struggle to recover costs | Defamation law (Australia) | The Guardian
   

  • Order Justice Abraham NSD7012024
     

• SA attorney-general vows to close 'gap' in legislation allowing self-induced intoxication and drug-induced hallucinations as partial defences - ABC News
   

• Federal government to pay up to $202m settlement to Indigenous workers, relatives in NT stolen wages class action - ABC News
   

• Serco must be punished for ‘oppressive’ treatment of prisoners at Australia’s largest jail, legal experts say | Prisons | The Guardian
   

• Special Rapporteur decries Australia’s Federal Court ruling further eroding rights to female-only spaces | OHCHR
   

• Central Land Council CEO launches defamation case against Jacinta Price | Jacinta Nampijinpa Price | The Guardian
   

• Network Ten reporter Tegan George reaches out-of-court settlement with broadcaster over bushfire trauma - ABC News
   

Editor’s picks

• Lehrmann judge’s six ideas to fix court secrecy [SMH paywall]

  Justice Michael Lee told a lawyers’ conference that despite laws aimed at increasing transparency, courts were moving in the opposite direction.
   

• National Access to Justice Partnership | Our ministers – Attorney-General’s portfolio

  “Today National Cabinet signed a Heads of Agreement for a new National Access to Justice Partnership that will provide a critical increase of nearly $800 million in funding over five years from 2025-26 to the legal assistance sector, with a focus on uplifting legal services responding to gender-based violence.”
   

• Handa & Mallick [2024] FedCFamC2F 957 (19 July 2024)

  [7] When the matter returned to court, I asked Mr B if the list of authorities had been provided using artificial intelligence. He informed me the list had been prepared from LEAP, being a legal software package, as I understand it, used for legal practice management and other purposes. I asked if LEAP relies on artificial intelligence. He indicated that it does, answering “there is an artificial intelligence for LEAP.” I foreshadowed making procedural orders later in the day, requiring Mr B to provide an explanation as to what had occurred. Mr B clarified this afternoon that he prepared the list of authorities and not Ms Aus Lawyers.

  [8] I informed the parties and their legal representatives this morning that as a concern had arisen in relation to the veracity of information provided in the list of authorities, a concern had in turn been raised in relation to the competency and ethics of Mr B….
   

• ‘We are growing’: HWL Ebsworth to call Martin Place home [AFR paywall]

  Top-tier law firms are on the move across the central business district, upgrading into more appealing workplaces as the war for talent heats up.
   

• “Executive Power – An Australian Perspective” - The Hon Michelle Gordon
   

• Chen v Chu - NSW Caselaw
  [262] In the context of their submissions on credit, the plaintiffs made reference to Kane’s Hire Pty Ltd v Anderson Aviation Australia Pty Ltd [2023] FCA 381 which is one of a trilogy of decisions [20] of Jackman J in the Federal Court of Australia in which His Honour criticised the long-standing practice in this State of using direct speech to recount conversations, usually prefaced with the words that the conversation was “to the following effect”.

  [263] His Honour expressed the view that evidence in this form is ethically problematic, as well as concealing the true nature and quality of the witness’s memory or conveying a false impression of that memory.

  [264] Contrary to His Honour, I see nothing ethically problematic about this practice. I consider it to be salutary.
   

• Chloe was cross-examined by her alleged DV perpetrator for hours in WA. Advocates say it has to stop | Western Australia | The Guardian
   

• EP 278 - Richard Tromans - The Disruptive Power of AI in the Legal Sector - Legal Mastermind Podcast - Presented By Market My Market - Apple Podcasts
   

• Fiji anti-corruption commissioner detained a day after being appointed, on orders of her deputy - ABC News
   

• ICC prosecutor says world leaders 'threatened' him over Israel arrest warrants
   

Like our free newsletter? The best way to support us is to tell your colleagues and friends about our newsletter.

We welcome your feedback, which you can send to [email protected]