Jim Ball: For those following this, two of the three judges on the Victorian Court of Appeals had no experience at all in criminal law. The conclusions of Justice Weinstein, the only one of the three that did dovetailed with those of the High Court. Meanwhile, because of their lack of expertise and qualifications in this area of law an innocent man sat in jail for 404 days.
An extract from Chris Merritt’s piece in the Weekend Oz—
“...One of the two judges of the Victorian Court of Appeal who upheld George Pell’s wrongful conviction for assaulting choirboys was appointed to the bench after stating publicly that he was not a criminal lawyer.
The Victorian government selected Court of Appeal president Chris Maxwell after a career that included working for a federal Labor frontbencher and running a politically charged legal challenge against the Howard government.
Less than three years before his appointment, Justice Maxwell told a Senate committee he was not a criminal lawyer and deferred to another lawyer with expertise in this area of law.
In November 2002, when he was the immediate past president of Liberty Victoria, he gave evidence to a Senate inquiry into a proposed counter-terrorism law along with Gregory Connellan, who succeeded him as head of Liberty Victoria.
The Hansard record shows the then Mr Maxwell told the Senate inquiry: “As I was president when we sent in our submission, Greg and I will deal with the issues together. Greg is a criminal lawyer, which I am not,” he told the committee.
Chief Justice Ferguson is a former commercial litigator and partner at national law firm Allens. She has never practised as a barrister. She was appointed chief justice in 2014, four years after joining the Supreme Court.
Both judges preside over courts that deal with all areas of law.
The Victorian opposition said democracy in the state relied on the integrity and capacity of its institutions and the leaders who run them. “All should be open to examination and review,” said opposition legal affairs spokesman Edward O’Donohue.
“The community is reasonably asking questions regarding the Victorian Court of Appeal majority decision, which has now been overturned by the High Court in a unanimous 7-0 decision,” he said.
The exoneration of Cardinal Pell is the latest in a series of setbacks for Victoria’s justice system and the Court of Appeal.
Justice Maxwell had come to national prominence in 2001 when he and former Greens candidate Julian Burnside QC ran an unsuccessful challenge against the Howard government’s handling of the Tampa affair.
According to a contemporary account of his appointment in the Victorian Law Institute Journal, former Labor attorney-general Rob Hulls selected Justice Maxwell straight from the Bar ahead of well-respected legal figures including a future High Court judge. The unsuccessful candidates for the top job on the Court of Appeal, according to the Law Institute Journal, reportedly included federal Labor’s Mark Dreyfus QC, who had not yet been elected to parliament, and Geoffrey Nettle, who was already a judge of the Court of Appeal.
Justice Nettle was appointed to the High Court in 2014 by former federal attorney-general George Brandis and formed part of the unanimous bench that struck down Justice Maxwell’s joint ruling against Cardinal Pell...”
George Pell appeal judge’s shock admission: ‘I’m no criminal lawyer’
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/legal-affairs/george-pell-appeal-judges-shock-admission-im-no-criminal-lawyer/news-story/88fe1fcb654dd7c1785a0d934cb92f35?fbclid=IwAR17nvLe9oM_kAeAuH7JrZ30kkwiD35SnRrGyQQecjNBWkQtwk7hErBNyk0
