Zhong v Melbourne Health & Anor

[2015] VSCA 165

Victorian Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Self-represented litigants
3. › Duty of court to assist unrepresented party
4. › Scope and limits of judicial assistance
5. › Whether trial judge afforded procedural fairness
6. › Whether failure to adjourn or compel witnesses constituted denial of fair trial
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Apprehended bias
3. › Whether refusal of adjournment and case management decisions gave rise to apprehended bias
4. › Fair-minded observer test
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › No case submission
3. › Self-represented plaintiff
4. › Whether trial judge entitled to treat plaintiff's case as closed and permit no case submission
5. › Failure to call expert evidence in medical negligence claim
1. Tort
2. › False imprisonment
3. › Burden of proof
4. › Detention under statutory authority
5. › Whether plaintiff bore burden of proving involuntary treatment orders unlawfully made where making of orders was agreed fact
6. › Mental Health Act 1986 (Vic), ss 12, 12AA, 14

Quick Take

A court's duty to assist a self-represented litigant does not extend to compelling the attendance of witnesses on the litigant's behalf, granting futile adjournments, or relieving the litigant of the onus of proof. Where involuntary treatment orders under the Mental Health Act 1986 (Vic) are agreed facts, the plaintiff bears the burden of proving those orders were unlawfully made, even though the general burden in false imprisonment rests on the defendant to justify the detention.