The Lawyer (Australia)
The Western Australia State Administrative Tribunal (WASAT) found Phillip Kelly guilty of one count of unsatisfactory professional conduct and nine counts of professional misconduct for behaviour that affected a client’s appeal between April 2017 and April 2019.
From July 2020 to October 2021, Kelly also failed to provide submissions or comply with a summons issued by the Legal Services and Complaints Committee (LSCC) as part of its investigation.Deputy president Judge Henry Jackson, senior member Dr Michelle Evans-Bonner, and member Ross Povey noted the first offence occurred because of Kelly’s failure to commence an appeal on behalf of his client within the time frame. It then snowballed from there.
The client’s evidence was that he met with Kelly on 12 April 2017, four days before the deadline for the first of two appeal notices, and had been informed of the “urgency of the matter”. However, the appeal notices were not filed until 28 February 2018.
Kelly said the delay “was not as egregious as might first be thought” because he was not instructed until September. However, the tribunal found the evidence to the contrary was “considerable”.
