NEW SOUTH WALES BAR ASSOCIATION v JETNIKOFF [1992] NSWCA 171

NEW SOUTH WALES BAR ASSOCIATION v JETNIKOFF SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

KirBY P, CLARKE and CRIPPS JJ 18 December 1992

[1992] NSWCA 171

LEGAL PRACTITIONERS — barrister — removal of name from roll — false "certificates" as student at law and as to good character — applicant signs names of solicitors — Court acts upon basis of certificates — not true "certificates" — evidence lack of good character — held: Order that name be removed.

ANTIDISCRIMINATION — race — barrister of Slavic ethnicity — false certificates secure admission as student at law and to practise as barrister — explanation given as to Slavic reluctance to accept formalities — held: Explanation rejected as affront to Slavic people.

Kirby P Before the Court is a summons. It seeks orders that the name of Mr Stephen Mark Jetnikoff be removed from the Roll of Barristers of the Court and that he be ordered to pay the costs of the claimant, the New South Wales Bar Association.

The facts of the case may be shortly stated. Mr Jetnikoff, who originally qualified to practise law in Queensland, sought and obtained a certificate as a student at law preliminary to his admission to practise as a barrister in this State. He did so on 24 October 1989 in reliance upon a certificate concerning his character which was produced, purportedly in the name of Mr RD Silva, a solicitor of Townsville. It now appears that this certificate of character was not a genuine certificate. It was, in fact, signed by Mr Jetnikoff himself and not by Mr Silva, although purportedly by Mr Silva. So much appears from an affidavit of Mr Silva which has been produced and read in these proceedings. Mr Silva says that he would have signed such a certificate had he been asked. However, this is not to the point of the present summons which complains that a false "certificate" was placed before the Court on the basis of which Mr Jetnikoff was granted certification as a student at law, preliminary to his admission to the Bar in this State.