Blackwatch Projects Pty Ltd v D J Cowling and B L Roberts (a firm)

The case of Blackwatch Projects Pty Ltd and others versus D J Cowling and B L Roberts (a firm) before the Supreme Court of New South Wales involved an application by the defendants to restrain the plaintiffs' solicitors, Mills Oakley Lawyers, from continuing to act on behalf of the third and fourth plaintiffs. The plaintiffs were seeking damages for alleged breaches of contract and negligence on the part of the defendants. The defendants argued that the solicitors were concurrently at fault, contributing to the loss claimed by the plaintiffs. They submitted that the solicitors had a significant financial and reputational interest in the outcome of the proceedings, which could lead to a conflict of interest.

The legal issues before the court were whether the defendants' pleading regarding the solicitors' contributory negligence was unarguable and whether the solicitors should be restrained from acting due to the potential conflict of interest. The court considered the nature of the allegations against the solicitors and the extent to which these allegations could impact the fairness of the proceedings. It examined whether the solicitors' interests could reasonably be seen as conflicting with their duties to their clients and whether this conflict was such that it warranted their disqualification from the case.

In deciding the matter, the court found that the pleaded case regarding the solicitors' contributory negligence was not unarguable and that there was a real possibility that the solicitors' interests could conflict with their duties to their clients. Given the seriousness of the allegations and the potential for these conflicts to impact the fairness of the proceedings, the court ruled that the solicitors should be restrained from continuing to act on behalf of the third and fourth plaintiffs. The court issued an order restraining Mills Oakley Lawyers from representing those plaintiffs in the proceedings.