
THE resignation of Australian-born Senior Justice John Lyons has left our chaotic court system in an even bigger mess.
Justice Lyons was carrying the burden of most of our commercial law cases. Now the enormous backlog of cases will increase.
At the present rate it is estimated that it will take 40 years to clear the backlog of cases in our courts. This is scandalous!
At first, Justice Lyons was on a mission to speed up the dysfunctional court system. He was also determined to clean up sloppy work by bungling, lazy lawyers. Too many of them were ill-trained and unprepared when they presented cases in court. Justice Lyons started out with good intentions. But it all went horribly wrong. The frustration of having to deal with a system that was in a total mass took its toll on the well-meaning, crusading Lyons.
Lawyers tell how he began to act strangely. He developed mood swings. One day he was charming and witty. The next, he'd switch to being bad-tempered and mean-spirited.
In the last two years, lawyers didn't know which Lyons they'd get in court. Lyons turned into a Jekyll-and-Hyde judge. He'd spend hours lecturing lawyers in open court on all kinds of subjects, except the case in front of him! SO, in the end, he was causing the backlog of cases to pile up even more! From being the solution to the problem, Lyons had become a part of it! His erratic, unpredictable behaviour was driving lawyers crazy. He'd suddenly declare that he was recusing himself from a case - and give no reason. Frustrated lawyers and their clients had to start all over again with a new judge!
The pressure of being overworked and underpaid in a chaotic court system seemed to be getting to Lyons. And he appeared to be losing his head. Then came the sensational ruling by his fellow-Justice Anita Allen.
She revealed in her ruling on a money-dispute case that Justice Lyons had shown poor judgment. He'd appointed accountant Daniel Ferguson to the money-row case even though Justice Lyons was dating Ferguson's sister Shonel Ferguson, the former Olympic athlete. Furthermore, Justice Lyons had overlooked the fact that Ferguson was not qualified to conduct a forensic accounting of the $100million being disputed in the Weisfisch money-row case.
Ferguson was paid $6million for compiling a report on the money case which was woefully inadequate. Even worse, it was also revealed that Ferguson hired his sister Shonel - Lyons' girlfriend - to help him compile the report.
The affair smacked of conflict of interest and "pillow-talk". Lyons was obliged to take the honourable course of action and resign.
He deserves credit for going gracefully. He could have forced officials to compel him to quit in disgrace in a blaze of bad publicity.
Like Caesar's wife, a judge must be "beyond reproach and above suspicion" of doing any wrong. After the Ferguson fiasco Justice Lyons could no longer pass that "perception" test.
So, he had to go. Lawyers are happy. But now Chief Justice Sir Burton Hall must quickly find a "suitable" judge to replace Lyons before our courts fall into an even bigger mess.
Originally published in The Punch, 11 May 2009.