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Supreme Court hears ‘racial bias’ claims from solicitor
A solicitor with a long history of alleging that he was unfairly treated and the target of malice and “racial bias” by the ACT Law Society has again appeared before the Supreme Court to learn whether parts of his statement of claim will be struck out.
Naomi Neilson
On numerous occasions, in a statement of claim and then again in his reply, solicitor Emmanuel Ezekiel-Hart alleged that he was discriminated against and refused a renewal of his practising certificate because he is a Black lawyer. However, the court heard that the nature of the pleading was “embarrassing” in the sense that it delayed proceedings.
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Between 2008 and 2021, Mr Ezekiel-Hart alleged that the “defendants, their servants and legal representatives have engaged in corrupt, unlawful and dishonest conduct including deceiving courts and tribunals and lying under oath”. The ACT Law Society contended that many of these claims were “made without any basis”.
The pleading, which is “lengthy and difficult to understand”, further alleged that the Law Society held onto his practising certificate indefinitely “without any option to work as a legal representative” because of his nationality. These claims, Mr Ezekiel-Hart said, included “unconscionable delay, lies to the plaintiff …, concoction and distribution of defaming materials, and creation of ‘unresolved complaints’”.
“The fact that the plaintiff asserts malice or lies on numerous occasions and does so without recognition of the gravity of the allegations and the need for precision in such applications should not lead the court to treat them in the same manner. If such allegations are to be made, then the rules and fairness to the defendants requires that they be properly pleaded and particularised,” the judgment read.
Mr Ezekiel-Hart was given the opportunity to remedy the defects, which he did attempt to do so via a reply. However, the court found that this was of “such a length and lacking in coherent structure that it does not, as a matter of substance, fulfil the requirement to particularise the claims of dishonesty, lying, etc”.
The challenged parts of the statement of claim and reply have been struck out, but Mr Ezekiel-Hart will be given one more chance to properly plead his claim.
In April 2021, the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard Mr Ezekiel-Hart’s claims that the Law Society held onto his practising certificate due to an “unwritten law and policy characterised with systemic discrimination, with distinction treatment, unfavourable treatment and victimisation of Black lawyers and the plaintiff”.
He wrote that they continue to “give certificates to those found guilty of professional misconduct, those found guilty of criminal conduct … they give certificates to those who have drug abuse issues [and] those deported from another country”.
The entire judgment is available on AustLII and JADE: Ezekiel-Hart v Council of the Law Society of the ACT (No 2) [2022] ACTSC 29.
