Clyne v Bar Association (NSW) [1960] HCA 40

High Court of Australia Dixon C.J. McTiernan, Fullagar, Menzies and Windeyer JJ Clyne v Bar Association (NSW) [1960] HCA 40

ORDER Appeal dismissed.

Cur. adv. vult.

The Court delivered the following written judgment:—

July 1 Dixon C.J., McTiernan, Fullagar, Menzies and Windeyer JJ

This is an appeal from an order of the Full Court of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. That order is that the name of the appellant be struck off the roll of barristers of the State of New South Wales on the ground that he has been guilty of such grave professional misconduct as shows him not to be a fit and proper person to practise as a barrister. The charges made against him arose out of four prosecutions for indictable offences and the conduct of these by the appellant at the preliminary hearing before a magistrate. These prosecutions were, on the advice of the appellant, launched by a client of his against a solicitor, and were admittedly devised as a means of intimidating that solicitor into ceasing to act for a certain lady in certain civil proceedings pending between her and that client. In opening the proceedings before the magistrate the appellant deliberately used the occasion to make a savage public attack on the professional character of that solicitor. He made that attack in extravagant terms, alleging fraud, perjury and blackmail. He knew that he had no evidence to substantiate such allegations. At the end of his opening he invited the man whom he was prosecuting for a crime to defend himself before any evidence had been given against him, and intimated that, if he were to cease to act for his client, the criminal proceedings would have achieved their object and could be discontinued. It is necessary, of course, that we should explain our view in some detail, but we may say at once that we are of opinion that the Supreme Court was entirely right in the conclusion which it reached.