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Cairns, Stephen William

JurisdictionAustralia — New South Wales
BodyOffice of the Legal Services Commissioner (NSW) (OLSC)
Professionbarrister — Arthur Phillip Chambers
Case number[2008] NSWADT 34
Date21-Jan-2008
HearingLegal Services Division of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal
OutcomeCosts Reprimand $0.00 Proceedings Instituted

Allegation / charges

In relation to matter 072025 - Breached Rule 37(a) and (b) of the NSW Barristers' Rules - he held an honest belief that he had reasonable grounds for alleging fraud in proceedings, he was in error in holding that belief and had he carefully considered the evidence available, he would have appreciated that it was not capable of supporting an allegation of fraud. — Unsatisfactory Professional Conduct

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

SanctionOther
Dishonesty foundNo

The barrister was found to have engaged in unsatisfactory professional conduct by breaching Rule 37(a) and (b) of the NSW Barristers' Rules. He alleged fraud in proceedings based on an honest but mistaken belief that he had reasonable grounds; had he carefully considered the available evidence, he would have appreciated it could not support a fraud allegation.

Duties found breached:

Mitigating factors:

  • Held an honest belief that he had reasonable grounds for alleging fraud

⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["extracted_from_register_summary"]

Duties engaged

Other decisions involving this respondent

  • Decision 2025-03-06 · OLSC · Australia — New South Wales · Reprimand $0.00 About ​ About the OLSC The Commissioner His…
  • [2008] NSWADT 34 2008-01-21 · OLSC · Australia — New South Wales · Costs Reprimand Claim for compensation be referred to the L…

Matched by respondent name — may include a different person with the same name.

Documents

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Source: https://portal.olsc.nsw.gov.au/dasearchbn/daresultdetail?id=462d510a-b733-eb11-bf74-000d3ad1941e