Re Hampton

[2002] QCA 129

SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

Re: Hampton [2002] QCA 129

PARTIES:

IN THE MATTER OF THE “RULES RELATING TO THE ADMISSION OF SOLICITORS OF THE SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND”

and

IN THE MATTER OF AN APPLICATION BY WAYNE LEONARD HAMPTON, LAW STUDENT FOR ADMISSION UNDER THE SAID RULES

(plaintiff/applicant)

FILE NO/S:

SC No 10413 of 2001

DIVISION:

Court of Appeal

PROCEEDING:

Application for Admission

ORIGINATING COURT:

Supreme Court at Brisbane

DELIVERED ON:

5 April 2002

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

18 March 2002

JUDGES:

de Jersey CJ, Moynihan SJA and White J
Joint reasons for judgment of de Jersey CJ and Moynihan SJA; separate reasons of White J, concurring as to the order made.

ORDER:

Application dismissed

CATCHWORDS:

PROFESSIONS AND TRADES – LAWYERS – ADMISSION
Where applicant, a former registered nurse, applied for admission as a solicitor having fulfilled the formal prerequisites for admission – whether he was a fit and proper person for admission as a solicitor – where applicant failed to disclose three sets of circumstances which may have been adverse to his admission as a fit and proper person – whether he should have disclosed his cancellation of registration as a nurse after inappropriately dealing with three females while under his care – whether he should have disclosed his plea of guilty to a charge that he had performed a nursing service while not a registered nurse contrary to s 142(1) of the Nursing Act – whether adverse circumstances would have come to light without a letter of objection being presented to the Solicitors’ Board – recognition of the primacy of the pro-active obligation of the candidate to make candid, comprehensive disclosure – whether an application should ordinarily be rendered doubtful where the applicant has not, in some significant respect, been frank with the court – whether a previous professional disbarment and an applicant concededly having acted as a professional contrary to a statutory provision are significant to the assessment of fitness to practise as a solicitor – where consideration to be given to amending the “notice previous to admission as a solicitor” to refer specifically to the duty of disclosure, in candid good faith, of any circumstance which might reasonably bear upon the applicant’s fitness to practice.

Nurses Act 1992 (Qld), ss 104 and 142(1)

COUNSEL:

G Mullins for the applicant
P Byrnes for the Solicitors’ Board

SOLICITORS:

Quinn & Scattini Solicitors for the applicant

1. de JERSEY CJ: Wayne Leonard Hampton has applied for admission as a solicitor.  He is a 37 year old former registered nurse who has now graduated in law from the Queensland University of Technology, and fulfils the formal prerequisites for admission.  The issue is whether he is shown otherwise to be a fit and proper person for admission as a solicitor.

1. The applicant delivered his “notice previous to admission as a solicitor” to the Solicitors’ Board on 20 November 2001, and on the same day caused publication of an advertisement of that notice in the “Courier Mail”.  On 23 November,…