Ethical obligations
12.4 The professional and ethical rules and obligations are not less important than the ‘legal’ rules considered throughout this Report, nor are the two types of rules mutually exclusive. This chapter will focus on the more general professional and ethical duties placed on lawyers—duties or rules over and above those specifically developed to govern discovery …
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Read moreThe need for a tailored approach?
11.80 The implementation issues identified earlier have led to considerable support for tailored pre-action protocols for specific types of dispute, recognising that in some instances there should in fact be no applicable protocol.[127] 11.81 Lord Woolf recognised the importance of targeted protocols, stating that pre-action protocols ‘are not intended to provide a comprehensive code for …
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Read morePre-trial oral examinations in the Australian context
Oral deposition-like processes in the Commonwealth 10.35 A few legislative provisions and court rules in Australia allow a court or a government agency to make orders for, or to compel a person to be subject to, oral examination. For example, the Family Law Rules (Cth) gives power to a court with jurisdiction under the Family …
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Read moreData collection
The need for data 3.4 Accurate and up-to-date data on the costs associated with discovery in Federal Court proceedings, and the extent to which discovered documents are used in the resolution of those proceedings, would provide a sound basis upon which to respond to concerns about the high costs of the discovery process in some …
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Read moreBringing evidence of violence and abuse to court
Requiring parties to disclose child welfare orders and involvement of child welfare authorities 1.25 In relation to Item 21 of the Exposure Draft legislation, the ALRC supports the aspiration to improve information available to federal family courts about the involvement of child welfare authorities and care arrangements under child welfare laws. The ALRC considers it …
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Read moreSecrecy Provisions: Policy and Practice
Justice Susan Kenny, Federal Court of Australia, Part-time Commissioner, Australian Law Reform Commission, addressing the National Information Law Conference in Canberra, on 24 March 2011 Introduction James Madison, sometimes called the Father of the United States Constitution, once said that: … I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the …
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Read moreALRC Brief | March 2011
View original e-newsletter format Welcome to the first edition of the ALRC Brief – a new publication distributed by email and on the website, to keep our friends and stakeholders apprised of news and developments at the ALRC. From the President’s desk Welcome to the inaugural edition of the ALRC Brief. The idea for this newsletter is to …
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Read moreThe ALRC and Indigenous People—Continuing the Conversation
By Amanda Alford[1] and Rosalind Croucher[2]. This article was first published in the Indigenous Law Bulletin, January/February 2011 Volume 7 Issue 22
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Read moreSenate Committee inquiry into the ALRC
On 11 February 2011, the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee held a public hearing for its inquiry into the ALRC. The Inquiry, which had been referred to the Committee on 23 November 2010, was called for largely to investigate the impact of heavy cuts to the ALRC budget over the last few years, and whether …
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Read moreThe Inquiry
1. On 9 July 2010, the Attorney-General of Australia, the Hon Robert McClelland MP, asked the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) to inquire and report on the treatment of family violence in Commonwealth laws, including child support and family assistance law, immigration law, employment law, social security law and superannuation law and privacy provisions in …
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