Council of the Law Society of NSW v Batalha [2020] NSWCATOD 158

Civil and Administrative Tribunal New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Council of the Law Society of NSW v Batalha [2020] NSWCATOD 158 Hearing dates: 22 September 2020 Date of orders: 22 December 2020 Decision date: 22 December 2020 Jurisdiction: Occupational Division Before: D Fairlie, Senior Member N Isenberg, Senior Member J Schwager, General Member Decision: (1) The Respondent is guilty of professional misconduct. (2) The Respondent is reprimanded. (3) The Respondent is to undertake further education as follows: (i) at his own expense, complete within 12 months of the date of these orders, an appropriate course in practise management which includes trust accounting (Course) as approved by the Director, Legal Regulation of the Law Society (Director) and therein achieve a pass mark of not less than 70% (Pass Mark); (ii) within 7 days of the receipt of notification of the result of his participation in the Course, provide the original or a legible copy of such notification to the Director; (iii) should the Respondent fail to achieve the Pass Mark, he must complete a further course as approved by the Director until he achieves the Pass Mark in any further nominated course; and (iv) should the Respondent not achieve the Pass Mark within the period prescribed in (i) above, any practising certificate then held by him shall be suspended (or if not holding a current practising certificate, no such certificate shall be issued to him) until such time as he achieves the Pass Mark. Catchwords: LEGAL PRACTITIONER - professional disciplinary proceedings - breach of trust account provisions - professional misconduct Legislation Cited: Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 Justice Legislation Amendment Act (No 2) 2019 Legal Profession Act 2004 Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW) Legal Profession Uniform Law Application Act 2014 Cases Cited: Brereton v Legal Services Commissioner [2010] VSC 378 Carr v Council of the Law Society of New South Wales [2020] NSWCA 276 Council of the Law Society of New South Wales v Davidson [2020] NSWCATOD 71 Council of the Law Society of New South Wales v DXW [2019] NSWCATOD 101 Council of the Law Society of New South Wales v Haseldine [2017] NSWCATOD 156 Council of the Law Society of New South Wales v Nasr [2015] NSWCATOD 70 Council of the Law Society of NSW v Thadsanamorthy [2019] NSWCATOD 96 Council of the Law Society of New South Wales v Thornton [2020] NSWCATOD 103 Council of the Law Society of New South Wales v Zhukovska [2020] NSWCA 63 Council of the Law Society of NSW v Xu [2009] NSWCA 430 Kumar v Legal Services Commissioner [2015] NSWCA 161 Legal Services Commissioner v Brereton [2011] VSCA 241 Peters v R [1998] HCA 7 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Council of the Law Society of New South Wales (Applicant) Luis Batalha (Respondent) Representation: Counsel: PA Madigan (Applicant) Respondent (Self Represented)