In Brief Issue #1065

Thank you to those members who have paid their subscriptions by the due date. If you have not paid your Subscriptions for the 2022-2023 Financial Year, we ask members to make payment of your subscription now. Please click here. If you have any questions relating to your subscription, please contact membership or call on 9225 8326.

Peer Support Barristers are barristers who have volunteered to be contacted by members and have been trained to provide support and advice to those who have experienced or observed discrimination, sexual harassment and/or workplace bullying.

Please see here for the list of Peer Support Barristers.

Members working on pro bono matters can once again seek assistance from selected Monash University law students through the Open Justice Project.

Students can assist with legal and paralegal tasks, such as legal research, simple drafting, and preparing chronologies or summaries of evidence. The Project is now in its second year.  From its first year, barristers reported that they received very high-quality assistance on a wide range of matters. Barristers seeking the assistance of a student for a pro bono matter should complete the request form on the Open Justice Project webpage. 

The Open Justice Project is a collaboration between the Victorian Bar and the Monash Faculty of Law. It establishes a panel of later year undergraduate and postgraduate students at the Faculty who provide pro bono legal assistance (such as research and paralegal assistance) to barristers in pro bono matters. The Patron of the Project is the Honourable Chris Maxwell AC, President of the Court of Appeal. Members can see the Open Justice Project web page for further information about the Project here.

Nominations for the next Victorian Bar Pro Bono Awards are still open.

The next Victorian Bar Pro Bono Awards Ceremony is scheduled for March 2023, and nominations for the 2023 awards are open until November 2022. 

If you are aware of barristers who are making an outstanding contribution representing parties on a pro bono basis, please consider making nominations throughout the nomination period.

For more information or to submit a nomination, click here.

Information about the Awards includes a short video featuring the Honourable Chris Maxwell AC, President of the Victorian Court of Appeal, explaining how pro bono assistance provided by barristers makes a difference to vulnerable people in our community. The Pro Bono Committee is grateful to Michael Rivette, barrister and past Deputy Chair of the Pro Bono Committee and past Chair of the Communications Committee, for all his hard work in creating this excellent video.

Members are reminded that information about how you can get involved in the Victorian Bar’s Pro Bono Schemes is available on the Pro Bono page of the members’ website here.

The Art & Collections Committee is pleased to advise that the audio-visual recordings of “Unveiling the Enigmatic Mr Deakin: a lecture by Emeritus Prof. Judith Brett” (17 November 2021) and “Artist & Sitter: In conversation with Bill Henson and the Hon. Kenneth Hayne AC QC”, a panel discussion hosted by Daniel Kinsey for Law Week 2022 are now available for viewing on the VicBar website here.

• Click Multi Factor Authentication (MFA): to read the recent BCL communication to ensure your Microsoft Office 365 data and @vicbar.com.au email account remains protected from the constant threat of cyber crime. All @vicbar email accounts require this additional layer of protection as a part of the next password change prompt.
• COVIDSafe at BCL: click here to see what we are doing in regards to healthy building improvements as our COVID-19 response and what you need to do in the event of a positive COVID-19 result.

Studio 11 is delighted to host its current solo exhibition Aerial Landscapes of Australia featuring 22 works by local artist Greg Mallyon who is an accomplished and highly collectable artist with a gift for depicting the lyricism of landscape through typographical perspectives. With a Masters in Art (University of NSW), his bold and distinctive paintings are inspired by aerial views of the land below, including geographic features such as lakes, gorges, rivers and deserts, along with the human imprint of cities, buildings, industrial sites and roads. In 2021 Greg won the inaugural National Capital Art Prize for landscape. All works in the exhibition are for sale (with no GST or commission payable). Works sheets are available at Level 11, Owen Dixon Chambers East. The exhibition runs until 16 September 2022. Why not take some time out of your day to come enjoy the exhibition.

Dear Essoign Club Members, 

We are open daily from 7:30am – till late and Happy hour is back EVERY EVENING with $5 Beer and Wine from 5:00pm till close.

Breakfast - for dine-in or takeaway.

Lunch – Daily Café Menu take away or delivery.

Lunch Dine-In - A La Carte from midday.

Bar – EVERY EVENING  - $5 Beer & Wine from 5pm till late with light snacks available.

Catering & Events - Special lunches, working lunches, private dinners or something special you may have in mind. Email us at essoign@vicbar.com.au

We appreciate your ongoing support and look forward to seeing you in the Club.

The Commercial Division Omnibus Practice Note PNCO 2 of 2022 (“Practice Note”) was published on the County Court of Victoria’s website on 6 July 2022.  

You can read about it in the news story published on our website, here.

The new Practice Note will come into operation on 1 August 2022, and represents a significant change in the approach to the management of cases within the Division. 

Some key changes include:

1. new rules concerning expert evidence, including mandating applications for leave to adduce expert evidence and prioritising the use of single joint experts;
2. the introduction of the Complex Cases List;
3. expanded alternative dispute resolution practices;
4. new approaches to lower value claims and matters involving self-represented litigants; and
5. a suite of new “replaceable orders”.

Accompanying the Practice Note is the new Commercial Division Standard Orders Booklet (“Standard Orders Booklet”), which corresponds to and draws on the replaceable orders throughout the Practice Note.  The Standard Orders Booklet sets out orders in the style and format that the Commercial Division prefers in one easy and accessible document.  Practitioners should consult the booklet whenever they draft consent orders to be submitted to the Court. 

The Practice Note and Standard Orders Booklet are available here:

Practice Note and Standard Orders Booklet.

Magistrates Court of Victoria will be utilising the  Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner email address for you as they move forward in their digital transformation journey.  Please ensure your email address held by VLSBC is correct and is monitored.

A feature of the new case management system being rolled out in the civil jurisdiction at MCV will be court generated eNotifications that will utilise this email address.  If you need any further information please do not hesitate to contact us at cms.project@courts.vic.gov.au.

We wish to advise you of changes from 1 July 2022 under the Administration and Probate Act 1958 and the Defamation Act 2005.

The Attorney-General, Jaclyn Symes MP, as Minister responsible for the Administration and Probate Act 1958, has declared the following:

• the new threshold amount for section 31A(2) is $28,961;
• the partner’s statutory legacy for section 70M is $499,210; and
• the maximum monetary value for section 71(1) is $115,830.

In addition, the Attorney-General, as Minister responsible for the Defamation Act 2005, has declared the new cap on damages for non-economic loss to be $443,000. This declaration is made in accordance with section 35(3) of that Act.

These declarations were published in the Victorian Government Gazette Number S314-22 on 24 June 2022. A copy is here.

The Council has released new sentencing data for the higher courts (County and Supreme Courts) on SACStat, the Council’s online statistical database. The new data covers sentencing outcomes in the five years to 30 June 2021 for over 250 offences dealt with in the higher courts.

SACStat can be accessed free of charge from the Council's website.

The Australian Institute of Administrative Law 2022 National Conference will be held in Canberra on Thursday, 21 and Friday, 22 July 2022, at the Hotel Realm.

Click here for the program for the Conference.

Full details of the conference are available here.

The booking link is available here.

Castan Centre - Human Rights Law Conference

Friday, 22 July 2022

Please join us for the annual Human Rights Law Conference presented by the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law. As the leading human rights conference in Australia, this event provides a vital health check on the state of human rights in Australia and overseas. Join us online via webinar on the 22nd of July.
Please register here.

China: Execution by Organ Removal by Eleos Justice

Thursday, 28 July 2022.

Join us for this topical webinar presented by Eleos Justice in partnership with Capital Punishment Justice Project. China is the world’s largest executioner, and while exact figures remain a state secret, it is estimated that thousands of executions are carried out each year. In this seminar, we speak with Matthew Robertson, whose recent research provides evidence of physicians in China participating in executions by organ removal. Please join us online via webinar on Thursday, 28 July.

Please register here.

Thursday, 28 July 2022 – 5:15pm-6:15pm

Topic: Recent Developments in Admiralty: here and abroad

Justice SC Derrington AM, Justice Stewart

Chaired by Justice Rares

Click here to view the flyer for more information and for the link.