NEW SOUTH WALES BAR ASSOCIATION v MOORE [1993] NSWCA 191

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

MEAGHER, HANDLEY and SHELLER JJA 1, 2 June and 20 September 1993, 2 November 1993

[1993] NSWCA 191

The opponent, a barrister, paid a bribe to a police prosecutor in 1983 while practising as a solicitor. He failed to report this conduct to any authority until 1992 and did not disclose it when applying for admission as a barrister in 1989. The applicant sought the removal of his name from the Roll of Barristers.

The opponent submitted he should be allowed to continue in practice because he had paid the bribe under duress, and had not disclosed his conduct because trauma had caused it to be repressed from his consciousness.

Held:

1. The evidence was not convincing that the threats made to the opponent produced in him such a fear of violence to himself or to his family that his will to refuse to take part in the bribery was deflected.

2. The evidence did not support the conclusion that the events were repressed from the opponent's memory but rather that he did not disclose his conduct because of his realisation of the consequences.

3. The opponent's conduct, measured against the standard of conduct expected of a solicitor, showed him not to be a fit and proper person to practise as a barrister.

Meagher JA I agree with Sheller JA.

Handley JA In this matter I have had the benefit of reading the reasons for judgment of Sheller JA in draft form. I agree with those reasons and the orders he has proposed. In my opinion the decision in this case very much depends on its special, indeed unique, facts. Accordingly, I express no view on what the proper approach of this Court should be in a case where a legal practitioner freely and voluntarily disclosed some undetected past wrongdoing either in the public interest or as part of his or her own rehabilitation.