EDELSTEN v MEDICAL TRIBUNAL OF NEW SOUTH WALES [No 2] [1993] NSWCA 87

EDELSTEN v MEDICAL TRIBUNAL OF NEW SOUTH WALES [No 2]

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES — COURT OF APPEAL

Kirpy P, PRIESTLEY JA and MEAGHER JA 14 April 1993

[1993] NSWCA 87

PRACTICE & PROCEDURE — Court of Appeal — adjournment — legal aid appeal — statutory right to adjournment — Legal Aid Commission Act 1979, s 57 — third application for adjournment of appeal — application foreshadowed shortly before hearing — refusal of legal aid — late withdrawal of appellant's legal representatives — importance of appeal to appellant — difficulty of presenting appeal unaided — protection of the public interest — held: In accordance with s 57 of the Act the proceedings should be adjourned on conditions.

Legal Aid Commission Act 1979, s 57.

Kirby P. Before the Court is a belated application for an adjournment of these proceedings. The proceedings are an appeal to this Court from a determination by the Medical Tribunal affecting Dr Geoffrey Edelsten. There have been earlier proceedings in the Court. The principal matter which remains outstanding in the appeal is the challenge by Dr Edelsten to the manner in which the Medical Tribunal disposed of the case before it. There have been two earlier applications for adjournment of the appeal, namely, on 11 November 1992 and on 15 December 1992.

On that last mentioned occasion special orders were made in order to ensure that there would be no further adjournment of the appeal. However, when the matter was called on this morning a third application for adjournment was made. This had been foreshadowed last Thursday when a message was sent to the Court, copy to the respondents, that the legal practitioners formerly appearing for Dr Edelsten had withdrawn from the case. They did so earlier lastweek. They did so following the decision of a Legal Aid Committee refusing Dr Edelsten legal assistance to prosecute his appeal.