In Brief Issue #1076

The Annual General Meetings of Victorian Bar Inc and Barristers’ Benevolent Association of Victoria will be held on Monday, 24 October 2022, at 5:00pm in the Neil McPhee Room. Members will have received an invitation containing the agenda for each meeting and a link to register their attendance. Registrations close at 4:30pm on Monday, 24 October 2022.

Members are reminded that nominations for election to the 2022/2023 Bar Council close at 5:00pm on Thursday, 20 October 2022.

Nominations must be received by the Statutory Secretary on or before 5:00pm on Thursday, 20 October 2022 by email to ed@vicbar.com.au.

Please find attached the Candidate nomination form and Nominator form.

Nominations received out of time or in hard copy cannot be accepted.

His Honour Magistrate David Langton

Her Honour Magistrate Helen Spowart

A welcome sitting to mark the appointment of His Honour Magistrate David Langton and Her Honour Magistrate Helen Spowart will be held in Courtroom 1, Magistrates’ Court of Victoria on:

Wednesday, 12 October 2022 at 9:00am

Members of the profession are most welcome to attend the welcomes in person, a formal RSVP is not required. Masks are required in the public areas of the Court. The ceremony will be live-streamed via Webex here.

His Honour Magistrate Brett Sonnet

His Honour Magistrate Greg Thomas

A welcome sitting to mark the appointment of His Honour Magistrate Brett Sonnet and His Honour Magistrate Greg Thomas will be held in Courtroom 1, Magistrates’ Court of Victoria on:

Friday, 14 October 2022 at 9:00am

Members of the profession are most welcome to attend the welcomes in person, a formal RSVP is not required. Masks are required in the public areas of the Court. The ceremony will be live-streamed via Webex here.

Registration for the 2022 CommBar Conference in Albury on Friday, 18 November 2022, is now open. Tickets can be purchased via this link.

The early bird rate of $440 per person (inclusive of GST) has been extended to apply for registrations received before 5:00pm on Friday, 14 October 2022. After that time, the registration price will be at the standard registration fee of $495 per person (inclusive of GST).

Attendance at the conference is open to all CommBar members and interested solicitors. Please feel free to circulate this registration link to colleagues and contacts whom you believe may be interested in attending.

Registration includes attendance at the conference and all social events, including:

• a welcome drinks reception on the rooftop terrace of The Albion Hotel, Albury, from 6:00 – 8:00pm on Thursday, 17 November 2022;
• morning and afternoon teas and lunch during the conference itself on Friday, 18 November 2022; and
• a conference gala dinner to be held on Friday, 18 November 2022.

The conference business sessions and the gala dinner will be held at The Atura Hotel in Albury.

Accommodation

The Atura Hotel is offering a conference accommodation rate for conference attendees at $190 per night for 17 and 18 November 2022. To access this offer, which is exclusive to conference attendees, you can either:

• call The Atura Hotel directly on 02 6021 5366 to make a booking, at quote ‘Commercial Bar Association of Victoria’; or
• book online via this link for the relevant dates (17 and 18 November 2022), select ‘I have a code’, and enter the block code: 2211COMMER.

Expressions of Interest for Presenters

The conference program will be comprised of six one-hour panel sessions throughout the day on Friday, 18 November 2022. Each session will be chaired by a Silk or senior junior, with a panel of two to three junior commercial barristers and one regional solicitor from the Albury and District Law Society.

A reminder that expressions of interest for panel speaker presenters for sessions 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 remain open until 5:00pm today, 30 September 2022. The topics for the sessions are set out in the program below. To submit an expression of interest, please email the Conference Organising Committee at commbar2022conference@vicbar.com.au and copy COC member Ella Zauner at ella.zauner@vicbar.com.au, identifying in that email which of the sessions below you are interested in co-presenting.

Conference Program

For more information, please click here.

Women Barristers Association is pleased to present a panel discussion on “Running for Bar Council”. If you’d like to find out more about what’s involved in being a member of Bar Council, how Bar Council works, and how you can contribute to the governance of the Bar, come along to this online session on Monday, 10 October at 5:15pm.

To join this meeting, please click here. 

Jury Skills Workshop: What does the jury really think? is on 27 October 2022 from 5:00pm-7:00pm and a full day workshop on 5 November 2022 from 8:30am-5:30pm. This is a specialist workshop for those who undertake jury trials in both the Criminal and Common Law jurisdictions. The workshop will provide you with a unique opportunity to improve your jury advocacy skills in front of sitting judges, a jury and hear from the “jurors” themselves. This is an in-person event only. Click here to register.

Why Take Chambers with BCL? As a wholly owned subsidiary of the Victorian Bar, BCL provides a flexible and unique solution of chamber and technology support only available to members of the Bar. Click here to view our current vacancies.

Studio 11 is delighted to host its current End of Year Exhibition featuring works by Robyn Wilson and Geraldine Richards at Level 11, Owen Dixon Chambers East.

This exhibition comprises some 43 works, all for sale directly from the artists, commission free. The exhibition runs from 3 October – 16 December 2022.

Robyn Wilson is a Melbourne based artist who graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and holds a Diploma of Visual Art. Robyn’s work draws inspiration from iconic and favourite Melbourne cafes, including Pellegrini’s Espresso Bar and Brunetti’s, a recent outback painting trip to Fowler’s Gap West of Broken Hill and Plein Air painting at Halls Gap. Robyn explores these works with a pervading interest in colour, geometry and patterning resulting in accomplished, balanced works.

Geraldine Richards is also a Melbourne based artist who is completing her Masters of Fine Art. Her works are lively, colourful and geometric. Her love of nuanced colour comes from her mother and her interest in form emanates from living in houses designed by architect Robin Boyd. Her landscape paintings are influenced by views of the Dandenong Ranges from East Ivanhoe and the shoreline of Port Phillip Bay at Mount Martha as well as travels around Victoria, in particular San Remo, the Bellarine Peninsula and the Macedon Ranges.

Please visit the exhibition at your leisure.

Dear Members,

The Club is pleased to announce that we will be hosting the Essoign Melbourne Cup Luncheon.

Details of which are as follows:

Venue:             The Essoign Club

Date:               Friday, 28 October 2022

Time:               12:45pm onwards

The cost of the event will be $100 per head for 3-course lunch and Sparkling on arrival, with beverage costs in addition.

There will be a sweep on the Melbourne Cup with tickets at $50.

Auction of a lunch in the VRC Committee Room on a non Cup Carnival race day with proceeds to go to Sacred Heart Mission, St Kilda.

Fashions on the field and all the usual fun of our much-loved event.

Ideally, those who are interested will organise a table of ten, but if that is not possible the Club can make arrangements to seat groups and individuals together in tables of ten.

If you are interested in attending please book now.

Click here for the flyer.

Book here.

Or book here:

Consistent with the change in community circumstances and continual improvement in the health environment, the Court will remove the requirement for surveillance rapid testing prior to any in-person attendance at the Court.

This change will be effective from Monday, 17 October 2022.

From 17 October 2022, practitioners and other court users will not have to undergo mandatory surveillance rapid testing before entering the Court.

However, practitioners and other court users are not to attend Court if they are symptomatic or if they have tested positive to COVID-19, until they return a negative rapid antigen test.

Masks will continue to be worn inside the Court building as per the existing arrangements.

We are continuing to monitor developments in relation to public policy concerning COVID-19 and we are taking steps to obtain advice on these developments.

The approach commencing on Monday, 18 October, outlined above, will be in place until further advised.

A protocol will be released on the Court’s website closer to the date.

The Magistrates’ Court of Victoria have published Practice Directions 7, 8 and 9 of 2022.

• Practice Direction 9 of 2022 - provides updated directions to promote timely commencement, progression and resolution of criminal charges arising out of family violence incidents. This PD applies from 17 October 2022 and revokes PDs No. 10 of 2014, Nos. 4, 7 and 8 of 2015, Nos. 3, 8, 12 and 13 of 2016, Nos. 7 and 11 of 2017 and No. 1 of 2018.

• Practice Direction 8 of 2022 - from Monday 3 October 2022, the MCV civil jurisdiction went live with the new electronic Case Management System (CMS). CMS will replace all current modes of filing for practitioners. This PD applies to all civil proceedings commencing under s100 of the Magistrates’ Court Act 1989, except for proceedings initiated under s100(1)(ca) which relates to federal jurisdiction matters which cannot be determined by VCAT. This PD is to be read in conjunction with Practice Direction No. 6 of 2022.

• Practice Direction 7 of 2022 – provides directions in relation to the filing of an affidavit marked Confidential and an affidavit which includes a confidential bundle of exhibits in civil division matters.  This PD applied from 3 October 2022.

The Judicial College of Victoria continues to publish updates to Scholarship for the Legal Community, a curated selection of research summaries of recently published academic writing from local and international journals.

Research on a range of topics, including sentencing, civil appeals, equity, estates and trusts, and the value of legal scholarship, has been added to the collection.

Among recent highlights:

• Read an analysis of recurring issues in civil appeals including the raising of points for the first time on appeal.
   
• Explore recent research on the value of taking account of systemic deprivation in sentencing Indigenous offenders.
   
• Explore the role of the Judge’s conscience and moral reasoning in guiding parties to minimise the risk of unconscionable conduct arising in transactions.
   
• Discover the continuing importance of legal scholarship to the judiciary and the bar.

You are invited to hear Dr Bryan Keon-Cohen, Dr Shireen Morris, Director of The Radical Centre Reform Lab and Professor Mark Rose, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Indigenous Strategy and Innovation at Deakin University, as they explore the current drive for recognition of the Uluru Statement from the Heart in the context of our history on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights.

This opportunity will allow you to hone your understanding of the issues encompassed by the Statement from the Heart in anticipation of a referendum that is now on the agenda.

Deakin Law School is delighted to host this event as part of its 30th anniversary. Please join us after the panel event for drinks and canapes.

When: Wednesday, 19 October 5:30pm - 7:30pm

Where: Deakin Downtown, Level 12, 727 Collins St, Melbourne

Click here to register.

The Council of Australasian Tribunals Victoria (COAT) is holding its annual conference on Friday, 21 October 2022, at Oaks Melbourne on Market Hotel (60 Market Street Melbourne)

NAVIGATING THE SEA OF HEALTH AND JUSTICE NEEDS IN THE DELIVERY OF TRIBUNAL SERVICES

This year’s conference will:

• Explore the challenge of providing tribunal services that respond to the health justice needs of users;
• reflect on and discuss the person-centred, collaborative, therapeutic and problem-solving approaches to decision-making that have been adopted by some tribunals;
• examine the skills and training civil and administrative decision-makers need to meet the community’s expectations of future tribunals.

Enquiries:
Fotini Panagiotidis
fotini@vicbar.com.au
9225-7444

Click here for the flyer and click here to register.

Resolution Institute Mediation training | Adelaide | 24-28 October 2022

Attend Resolution Institute's five-day mediation training for a practical learning experience built on sound theory.

The training meets the requirements for the National Mediator Accreditation System (NMAS) in Australia. The course has a strong skills development orientation. You will engage in demonstrations, simulation role plays offering experiential learning along with personalised coaching and receive feedback from highly skilled mediators.

You will learn the following:

• a proven step-by-step mediation process adaptable to a wide range of circumstances
• essential skills to identify the range of drivers underpinning different perspectives
• effective communication skills and processes to manage difficult or emotionally charged interactions
• strategies to generate options and break impasse
• practical tools to keep people with conflicting views focused on achieving constructive outcomes

Click here to register.

Australian Arbitration Week 2022: Resolution Institute’s Expedited Process for Domestic Arbitration

Join Amber Williams (CEO, Resolution Institute) and an esteemed panel to learn more about the Resolution Institute expedited arbitration process.

Wednesday, 9 November 2022 | 7:45am (8:00am start) – 9:00am AEDT | MinterEllison Collins Arch, Level 20, 447 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

A renewed emphasis on ensuring arbitration delivers a cost-effective, timely and efficient path to resolving disputes (particularly those with a low-value quantum) has resulted in various approaches to fast-track or expedited arbitration rules from arbitral institutions over recent years.

With 15 years of experience from 2007, when IAMA (Resolution Institutes predecessor body) first launched its fast-tracked arbitration rules, Resolution Institute is introducing a refined and modern approach to expedited arbitration supporting the Resolution Institute 2020 rules.

Click here to register.