A lawyer's implied authority does not extend to signing and filing a notice of discontinuance of a criminal appeal without prior client approval, given the significance of the legal consequences. A notice of discontinuance filed without the appellant's knowledge or authorisation is a nullity and will be set aside. Where a notice is set aside as a nullity, the merits of the proposed appeal grounds need not be considered at the withdrawal stage.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 3 later cases that cite this judgment.
2 of the 3 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.