Header Image: Prakash Raniga Principal Lawyer, RRR Lawyers (Rossi, Ryan & Raniga)
Australian Lawyers Weekly
Prakash Raniga agreed with the Victorian Legal Services Commissioner that he engaged in professional misconduct and should be reprimanded for acting on “inappropriate instructions” he received from his client, the husband, in family law proceedings.
Those instructions were to make an offer to settle their dispute but was contingent on the ex-wife’s statement of no complaint in respect of a historic rape allegation and assurances she would make “no further complaint” to police about matters prior to their separation.Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) senior member Jonathan Smithers said the case has illustrated “how issues concerning the fundamental duties of legal practitioners” can arise in the “daily conduct of a family law practitioner’s practice”.
“It illustrates the need for practitioners to be mindful of those higher duties, even where the circumstances are such that one can well understand the reason why a client may give such instructions,” Smithers said in his written reasons for judgment.
Read full article
