Rule 21 of the Professional Conduct and Practice Rules 2005 (Vic) is to be interpreted according to its plain meaning, with the questions of whether comments were made in the legitimate pursuit of a client's interests and whether there was a reasonable basis for the comments being inter-related but not determinative considerations — neither is a substitute for the ordinary language of the rule. A solicitor's honest belief that an opposing practitioner lied, based on a contested recollection of a single telephone conversation without notes, does not provide a reasonable basis for accusing that practitioner of being 'fundamentally dishonest' and engaging in 'deliberate and calculated' dishonesty. On appeal from VCAT under s 148 of the VCAT Act, a Supreme Court judge cannot set aside VCAT's findings of fact by making contrary findings, even where framed as 'inferences necessarily arising' from found facts.
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