UFB
No but I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if it wasn't true.
It would be nowabouts that the discovery process would have progressed a fair way along the put up or shut trail.
Smiths statements to others that he was prepared to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on this case is IMHO many orders of magnitude short of the real cost, try more than 6 figures.
That's a lot of money in an attempt to polish an ego with a very high probability of being found stark staring naked.
Settlement? for my money it should be him paying his piper and Airservices costs plus punitive damages and a formal public apology.
tobzalp
Dontcha hate that when you are preparing a post.......?
I am no lawyer but part of the "price" of withdrawal might be that as a result of that withdrawal Airservices have been denied the right to defend some very serious allegations and are therefore disadvantaged.
You can't, just for example take very visible private action against someone you think might be say a paedophile or in this case endangering the public, then having started the process just withdraw and walk away and not expect the aggrieved party to seek a remedy for relief. Especially when you hold a circus outside and inside their courts.
The courts take a very dim view of being used for such mischief.
You always have the right to be heard in a court but expect to get both barrels if you are found to have used the court for mischievous purpose without a reasonable foundation in fact. The responsibility for supervising that, as far as I understand it is the function of your solicitor.
They are officers of the court and bound to serve it. i.e. if you ask them to solicit a barrister to take an action to the courts on your behalf they must have a reasonably sustainable brief otherwise they will find it hard to find a respected barrister to take it on.
They both have an obligation to you to advise you of the likelihood of its success.
Their job and legal obligation is to find out how you might win and use their utmost skills to run your case, but if the defendent of a civil action or prosecutor, have say a cuppla hundred certifiably expert witnesses, public and private video and audio pointing at you holding the smoking gun, the best they can do is negotiate, what I think thay call in the US a "plea bargain". It's a bit back to front in a civil case but you know what I mean.
Remember they also have legal reputations to protect and have to live with the courts on a day to day basis.
If they find that they have not been provided with the full facts, the weight of which moves against their client, against which they must argue the case, and that is what the discovery process (you show me yours and I'll show you mine) is all about, they have the ability to decline to continue, if on their advice their client insists on doing so.
I think under certain circumstances they may even have to apply to the court to be released.
It's all in the balance and perspective and the principle of the court not being abused as a personal weapon. At least that is the way it's supposed to work.
Thankfully the judiciary remain the final arbiters of this process and are by the Separation of Powers enshrined in our constitution not subject to personal patronage or political pressure.
But I'm sure there are those who are actually expert on these matters who can correct on the finer points of the above.
Last edited by gaunty; 20th Oct 2004 at 03:28.