Robing of Counsel

First Queensland and now Victoria are mandating robing of counsel for defended hearings – with the hope that this will improve the stature and dignity of the court and the process.

The Federal Magistrates Court (“FMC”) has been advised that the Victorian Family Law Bar Association resolved unanimously to request the introduction of robing in both the Melbourne and Dandenong Registries of the FMC in all final hearings in family law matters. The FLBA is of the view that robing will enhance the stature of the FMC and preserve the dignity and seriousness of matters before it.

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My Opinion on Legal Textbooks – By Yaakov Gorr

Legal textbooks are the last genre of book I really have any interest in reading, which is odd given that I make a living from writing them. It’s all been said before, right?  Most of what’s in them is just rebadged common sense.  There’s nothing in any of them much which is all that new or revolutionary.  Everything you could want on any legal topic is right there in a plethora of journals – every one of Australia’s myriad of law schools appears to have onel.  JStor will sell you a copy on line. That’s what the Internet was made for, right?  You can bet that  if one academic’s paper, competitors will rush and print look-alikes, slightly different… Read more of this post

Legal education through practical clinics in the third world: A thesis

Robert M. Pirsig might not have thought he was writing a text about jurisprudence when he wrote Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.   However, there is much in the structure of his book which is of interest to legal practitioners.  Pirsig doesn’t think you can learn practical skills from a textbook.

Ligertwood, in his landmark book, Australian Evidence, takes a similar approach.   He proceeds on the basis that juries and magistrates are intuitively equipped to determine the strength of competing hypotheses of facts.  He then suggests that such intuition is borne out of experience and information.  Even judgments as to what is more probable and what is less so are borne of such experience and information.  He decries book learning alone : a book does not provide definitive answers. Read more of this post

Lexcursions – The Adventures of Anthony Jucha: July Edition

Lawyers in the old Sydney University law library some years ago. This book of conveyancing recedents, now nearly a decade in print, had become as weathered and worn as the library itself. A splitting spine spoke of perusals aplenty and many a pressing against photocopier glass. When I first encountered the book’s author, Garry Barnsley (in much better shape than his book), I was curious about this local pioneer in legal precedent publishing.

I wondered what would make such a (doubtlessly boring) man tick. And so, when planning a trip to  his locale, I invited myself (and my de facto) over for lunch. Read more of this post