Mericka Conviction Quashed!
OPINION
by Peter Mericka B.A., LL.B
Real Estate Lawyer
Qualified Practising Conveyancer Victoria
Director Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd
The Australian Financial Review has today published an article which reports my “conviction” for misleading conduct. This conviction has now been quashed – by me.
Like Mark Twain, who was forced to declare publicly that reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated, I am now forced to declare that reports of my having been “convicted in the Victoria Supreme Court” have been similarly exaggerated. To be quite clear about it, they are false.
Today’s Australian Financial Review (the Property section, not the Legal section), carries an article by property journalist Rebecca Thisleton in which the above false and defamatory statement appears. In fact, the matter was a civil proceeding, brought by Consumer Affairs Victoria in order to determine whether a lawyer who negotiates the sale or purchase of real estate on behalf of consumers is in breach of the Estate Agents Act.
I will now publish a series of blog posts, giving the background to the campaign waged against me by Dr. Noone, Director of Consumer Affairs Victoria on behalf of real estate agents, and explaining how her failure to properly regulate the real estate industry has given rise to my crusade to bring change and to advance the cause of real estate consumers generally.
My first posting will be a report on the background to the matter, and the strategies that led to its being put before the Supreme Court of Victoria.
WATCH THIS SPACE!
6 Comments
LLLL IIII BBB EEE LLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Disgraceful. Can you sue for this? Contact with Tim O’Dwyer might help.
My lawyers are onto it, but the horse has bolted. I’m feeling very much like Cool Hand Luke in that famous fight scene. Every time I get up, I get knocked down again.
And it all comes from working hard as a consumer advocate, being open, honest and fair, and telling the truth.
What is particularly irksome is that the court did not identify a single thing that I or my firm did that was wrong. What the court found was that my firm seems like a real estate business, and therefore it must be a real estate business, and if it’s a real estate business then it must need a licence – even though, as a lawyer, I am entitled to perform each and every function.
It’s like telling a licensed conveyancer that their office seems like a legal practitioner’s office, that conveyancing is work ordinarily carried out by a legal practitioner, therefore the conveyancing business is acting as an unlicensed legal practitioner, and thereby breaching the Legal Profession Act.
As a consequence I’ve been accused of misleading and deceiving, and now of being a convicted criminal!
Give ’em curry Peter. I wonder if Rebecca has a real Journalist Degree? Anyway, next time you get convicted let us know and we’ll visit you inside – we’ll bring cake.
Maybe she confuses conviction with conviction.
That’s just awful!