Minister for Immigration & Multicultural Affairs v Shen

The case of Minister for Immigration & Multicultural Affairs v Shen involves the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs seeking costs from Mr Shen, a registered migration agent, and Global Time Group Pty Ltd, a company providing migration agent services of which Mr Shen is a director. The application arose from an unsuccessful judicial review of a decision by the Refugee Review Tribunal. The Minister's application for costs was filed following the dismissal of the principal proceedings, and leave was granted for the Minister to apply for costs against the respondents. The primary legal issue before the court was whether Mr Shen and Global were liable for the costs of the unsuccessful application for judicial review and the Minister's costs of the application for costs.

The court found that Mr Shen and Global were liable for the costs. The court reasoned that Mr Shen, despite having knowledge that the application for review had no prospects of success, did not advise Mr He against lodging the application and failed to obtain the required written acknowledgment from Mr He. This conduct was in breach of the Migration Agents Code of Conduct, which mandates that a migration agent must not encourage a client to lodge an application that is vexatious or grossly unfounded, and must advise the client of the same, obtaining written acknowledgment if the client still wishes to proceed. The court held that Mr Shen and Global were liable for the costs due to their failure to comply with the Code and their involvement in the filing of a hopeless application. Consequently, the court ordered that the first respondent, Mr Shen, pay 40% of the applicant's costs of the principal proceedings and the applicant's costs of the notice of motion on a party and party basis.