NSW How Best to Find a Pro Bono Barrister?

[Rod]

I couldn't tell her.. how to run the case,

You can't anyway. A barrister can withdraw from a case if their legal advice is not accepted by the client

I tried to get her to put another argument that was not in my Written Submissions

Why do you think this acceptable?

What can you do?

Castigate yourself for not putting all your arguments into your written submission. There are cost consequences even if a court was to accept an argument not in written submissions.

The feeling I had when I first had dealings with her that she may be working for the other side is still with me.

This is an unwarranted comment. You set the guidelines with your written submissions and now part way through the hearing you want to change. Me thinks the problem is not with the barrister.

 

[Sally-Anne Fagin]

No, the barrister and the junior barrister were definately getting paid by the other side.

I bet they even removed my Written Submissions from the Orange Book.
I'm going to email the Judges associates today and ask them to check and see if my Written Submissions were before the Judges.

I'm so certain now that they were getting paid by the other side, that I'm not going to attend the Judgement, and I'm not going to reply to any correspondence by the barrister or her junior, and I'm not going to attend any costs hearing, as I'm not going to give these proceedings any credibility that they don't have.

The rule of law is broken.

 

[Rob Legat - SBPL]

Sally-Anne, given that you have personally named the barrister and alleged professional misconduct of the highest order in this thread I would be very careful about what you do and what you say to any person about the matter unless you have direct proof of what you are alleging.

 

[Tim W]

Indeed, I would be very surprised indeed if word of this thread
and your comments within it, did not reach them very soon indeed.

 

[Sally-Anne Fagin]

Well I have emailed the three Judges associates, and told them the pro-bono barristers who were supposed to be representing me had been paid by the Respondent to run dead on the case, and asked them to see if my Written Submissions are in the Orange Book.

The barristers who were supposed to be representing me made no mention of my written submissions in Court, so I have no way of knowing if they were actually before the Judges.
Instead they flogged this one argument for the whole day; I thought they would give up on that argument after we came back from the lunch adjournment as it was obviously going no-where, and not being accepted by the Judges, but no, they persisted in flogging this dead horse, even though rigor mortis had set in long ago.
One of the Judges obviously was so bored with it that he took to gazing out the window at the birds flying past rather than paying attention to the barrister.

 

[Sally-Anne Fagin]

Indeed, I would be very surprised indeed if word of this thread
and your comments within it, did not reach them very soon indeed.

I don't care. Can you get a decision of the Court of Appeal quashed because there was a denial of Natural Justice?

 

[Sally-Anne Fagin]

There you go, I have emailed the barristers and withdrawn my instructions; should have done that before the hearing like I was thinking of doing.
It's a bit like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted now.

The only proceedings left are accepting the Judgement and if there is a costs hearing; neither of which I will be attending, and I assume the barristers will not be attending either, so no one will be there representing myself, including myself. Sort of making a statement that the proceedings were a sham.

 

[Tim W]

Sort of making a statement that the proceedings were a sham.

Nothing of the kind.

 

[Sally-Anne Fagin]

I'm wondering who has been calling my landline 3 or 4 times a day the last several days.

I haven't felt in the mood to talk to anyone about anything official the last several days, as I have been busy organising a van I bought second hand last Sunday to be registered, which has entailed getting a pink slip, or safety certificate as they are now called, and organising a green slip and transferring the rego and renewing the rego.

Did you know that a vehicle that runs on LPG gas, or partly on LPG gas, has to have the LPG gas tank replaced after 10 years, which I have been informed costs about $1000.
Luckily I just scraped in the 10 years, but next year, if the van is still going well and I want to renew the rego again, I will have to get a new LPG gas tank fitted to it.

So just be aware, if you are thinking of buying a vehicle that runs on LPG gas, check when the gas tank expires.
There should be a sticker on it.

I'm setting the van up for travelling; I probably wont go too far, but I'm loading it with what I would need to be self contained on the road.

You really need a van for travelling; you can pull up somewhere and jump in the back and sleep with lots of room.
I'm too tall to sleep comfortably in a car, plus in a car you get woken up sometimes by the cops shining a torch in the window on you.

But anyway, back to the phone calls. It could be the housing authorities, as I am am having a bit of conflict with them recently, but I really don't want to speak to them.

I have also emailed the respective Judges associates in the case, and the Registrar emailed me and said refrain from contacting the Judges directly. Well I emailed their associates not them.
So I don't want to pick up the phone to be told off by Judges associates, which is also another reason I didn't answer the phone.

Then it could be the barristers I sacked. I don't want to talk to them either.

But if it rings tomorrow, I think I will answer it, as I'm getting curious who's calling me and why.
I hope they don't abuse me, as emotionally at the moment I don't feel like getting abused.

Working on a Notice of Motion seeking the hearing be re-opened.
I think you can do this.
By the time I file this the Judges may have handed down their decision, and I came across a case which basically said that a Court is more likely to re-open a hearing if Judgement has not already been handed down in the matter.

I'm nothing if not persistent. If you go to war against me there will be no quick and easy victory, rather I will bog you down in long drawn out trench warfare, and attrit you bit by bit.

Problem here is the Respondent is Woolworths, ALH Group is owned by Woolworths, so it is a publicly owned company, so fighting this case does not cost the licensee of the hotel any money, and it does not cost any employee of the ALH Group any money, they still get paid the same; the shareholders of Woolworths are the one's paying for the hotel to fight the case.
However given the size of Woolworths, a few hundred thousand dollars spent fighting this case will not affect the share price, or affect any dividends paid by Woolworths to the shareholders, so really this case will not cost the Respondent anything.

If you are taking an individual or a small business or small company to Court, then they are more likely to see reason once you prolong the case for a while and their costs start to mount up.

I call it my "Vietnam Defence", named after Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap, who said in an interview, "We were not strong enough to drive out half a million American troops, but that wasn't our aim. Our aim was to break the will of the American Government to continue the war".

So under my "Vietnam Defence", you don't need to actually win the Court case, you just need to fight them long enough till it becomes untenable for them to keep fighting because of the cost to them, and then they will settle.
Except some people are stupid for whatever reason and don't come to their senses when their costs of fighting the case mount up, and they keep fighting the case, even though even if they ultimately end up winning, they are left with a big legal bill which is much more than the amount they would have to pay out to you if they settled.

But my Vietnam Defence wont work in this case, as the Respondent, being Woolworths, is such a big company that any amount of money I could cost them in legal and other fees will not impact in the slightest on their profit margin.

So in this case the enemy must be beaten in battle, in the Courtroom.

If I fail in the Courtroom, then the only other way to win is political, which will require a decent number of the local residents to stand up and be counted.
And so far only a few of them have stood up; the rest are "Dugout Dougs", preferring to cower in the trenches while me and a few others jumped out of the trench and charged the enemy with bayonets drawn.

Anyway, whatever the result, at least I took to the field and played the game of life, rather than sitting on the sidelines watching the game.

And if I fail, at least I will fail while daring greatly, so my place will never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.