Hally v Queensland Law Society [1960] HCA 44

High Court of Australia Dixon C.J. Menzies, and Windeyer JJ. Hally v Queensland Law Society [1960] HCA 44

ORDER Application for special leave to appeal dismissed with costs.

The judgment of the Court was delivered by Dixon C.J.:—

Dixon C.J., Menzies, and Windeyer JJ.

This is an application for special leave to appeal from an order of the Full Court of the Supreme Court of Queensland by which order an appeal from a decision of the Statutory Committee of the Queensland Law Society was dismissed. The order of the Statutory Committee struck off the roll of solicitors the name of the present applicant.

Two points of law are made in support of the application. The first is that to a not inconsiderable degree the proceedings were based upon r. 76 of the Rules made under The Queensland Law Society Acts, which are now of 1952. In fact, of a number of charges there were five that may be said to have depended on that rule. There were seventeen charges in all and of those there were three, I think, dismissed. Rule 76 says that: "(1) Where any practitioner fails to reply to any communication or request from the Council or the secretary, the secretary may notify the practitioner in writing that if such failure continues for a period of twenty-one days from the date of his receiving such notification he will be liable to be dealt with for professional misconduct. (2) If such failure so continues for a period of twenty-one days from the date of his receiving such notification, such failure shall be and shall be deemed to be professional misconduct and the practitioner shall be liable to be dealt with by the Statutory Committee accordingly, unless he furnishes a reasonable explanation to the Statutory Committee, and on any such proceedings before the Statutory Committee the tendering of the communication or request from the Council or the secretary to which the practitioner has failed to reply, together with proof of the due posting of such communication, shall be prima facie evidence of the truth of the matters contained in any such communication and of any enclosures therewith or annexures thereto."