Murdock v Virgin Australia Airlines Pty Ltd

The applicants in this case, Shane Murdock and others, sought an application against Virgin Australia Airlines and others to restrain the applicants from instructing a third-party to communicate on their behalf in relation to the proceedings. The third-party in question was not a legal practitioner and had sent a number of offensive and threatening communications to the officers and legal representatives of the respondents. The matter was heard in the Federal Circuit Court of Australia. The primary legal issue before the court was whether the language used in the communications was relevant and appropriate to the conduct of the proceedings, and if not, whether the court had the power to make orders regulating the conduct of the legal proceedings. The court considered the language of the email to be offensive, irrelevant to the conduct of the proceedings and threatening. The court found that it had the power to make orders regulating the conduct of the legal proceedings under section 23 of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976. The court granted the application and made orders restraining the applicants from instructing the third-party to communicate on their behalf in relation to the proceedings, and restraining the third-party from communicating with the respondents. The court also ordered that the respondents serve copies of the order and other documents on the applicants and the third-party. The matter was listed for a further case management hearing.