Bakarich v Commonwealth Bank of Australia

[2010] NSWCA 43

NSW Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Courts and judges generally
3. › Judges
4. › Disqualification for apprehended bias
5. › Request for judge to disqualify self
6. › Prior professional associations with litigant and counsel
7. › Whether shared chambers, common shareholdings in chambers company, and occasional briefings by litigant sufficient to warrant disqualification
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Courts and judges generally
3. › Judges
4. › Apprehended bias
5. › Fair-minded lay observer test
6. › Knowledge attributed to fair-minded lay observer
7. › Knowledge of manner in which legal profession is organised
8. › Knowledge that judges appointed from practising profession

Quick Take

A judge's prior sporadic briefings by a party during a career at the Bar, shared chambers with counsel for a party for a limited period ending many years earlier, and a shareholding in a chambers company that was a prerequisite to occupying chambers, do not individually or collectively give rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias. The applicant must articulate the logical connection between the disclosed matter and the feared departure from impartial decision-making (the 'second step' in Ebner).