Defamation lawyer Martin Bennett has been fined more than $20,000 after the state administrative tribunal found his conduct to be "grossly careless" over a court matter.
Defamation lawyer Martin Bennett has been fined more than $20,000 after the state administrative tribunal found his conduct to be "grossly careless" over a court matter.
The tribunal last night delivered a judgment against Mr Bennett, including orders for the Bennett law firm founder to pay a $23,000 fine to the Legal Practice Board of Western Australia, $12,500 to the Legal Services and Complaints Committee, and for him to be publicly reprimanded.
In the judgment, the tribunal found Mr Bennett's conduct over a guardianship application in June 2018, and June and August 2019, was grossly careless but fell short of being "reckless".
The Legal Services and Complaints Committee alleged Mr Bennett included protected information in his client's affidavit despite a senior associate in his firm questioning the inclusion.
Mr Bennett told the associate that the information could be included because he genuinely believed it was a permissible use, unaware he was mistaken, the judgment reads.
"Rather, it is open, in our view, to infer that the practitioner had a conscious disregard for the correctness of his view as to the law," the tribunal found in its judgment.
"In our view, such an inference may be drawn from the fact that the [senior associate] (whom [SAT president] described as 'experienced') twice raised her concerns with the practitioner who, despite those concerns being raised with him, did nothing to confirm his view of the law.
"That is, the practitioner twice had the risk that he was wrong in his view of the law put to him by an experienced senior associate and, without doing anything at all to confirm his view, he dismissed that risk.
"In our view, the only way that the practitioner could have dismissed the risk without taking any other steps to confirm the correctness of his view and without consciously disregarding or being indifferent to the risk, is if his mind did not admit the possibility that he might be wrong."
In its judgment, the tribunal found proper cause existed for disciplinary action against Mr Bennett's professional misconduct.
Mr Bennett has been a leading figure in WA's legal sector for decades, having been admitted to practice in 1978 and setting up his own law firm Bennett + Co after a stint at Lavan.
His clients include outgoing federal senator Linda Reynolds, real estate agent Vivien Yap, and Mineral Resources boss Chris Ellison.
Mr Bennett also represented Lloyd Rayney in the one of the state's longest running defamation cases.
