KMB v Legal Practitioners Admissions Board (Queensland)

[2017] QCA 146

Queensland Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Professions and Trades
2. › Lawyers
3. › Qualifications and Admissions
4. › Jurisdiction of Supreme Courts
5. › Role of Admissions Board
6. › Whether Board liable for costs of appeal against refusal to make suitability declaration
7. › Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld), ss 32, 39, 707
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Costs
3. › Immunity from costs orders
4. › Statutory immunity
5. › Whether immunity from civil liability extends to liability for costs
6. › Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld), s 707
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Costs
3. › Discretion to award costs
4. › Proceedings not inter partes
5. › Board acting as amicus curiae to assist the Court
6. › Whether costs should be awarded against body performing quasi-judicial function for the Court

Quick Take

The Legal Practitioners Admissions Board in Queensland is immune from costs orders under s 707 of the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld) when it appears before the Court in the exercise of its statutory function, absent dishonesty or negligence. Even without the statutory immunity, costs will not ordinarily be awarded against the Board in appeals under s 32(5)(b) because the Board is not a party to litigation but a helper to the Court, and the proceedings are not inter partes.