Mendonca v Legal Services Commissioner

The applicant, Mendonca, sought leave to appeal from an order of the primary judge that dismissed a summons for judicial review. The judicial review concerned a decision by the Legal Services Commissioner not to conduct an internal review of a decision made by the Law Society to close a complaint against a solicitor.

The central legal issue before the Court of Appeal was whether the primary judge erred in dismissing the summons for judicial review. This required the Court to consider the scope of the Commissioner's power to conduct an internal review, which was described as being at the "absolute discretion" of the Commissioner, and whether any arguable error in the primary judge's decision could be identified.

The Court of Appeal found that no arguable error had been demonstrated in the primary judge's decision to dismiss the summons. The Court affirmed that the Commissioner's power to conduct a review was indeed discretionary, and that the applicant had failed to identify any basis upon which that discretion had been exercised improperly or in error.

Consequently, the Court of Appeal ordered that the summons for leave to appeal be dismissed with costs.