Rossline Agnes Fane JANES

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

Solicitor Rossline Janes was found to have committed professional misconduct by misleading District Court Judge Robertson on 26 November 2009 in an affidavit and oral submissions, falsely representing that counsel (Ms Moody) had been unconcerned about court time limits and had provided a deficient outline of argument, when in fact Moody had advised the appeal was incompetent and provided only interlocutory submissions. The Tribunal preferred Moody's evidence and found the conduct involved 'either deliberate dishonesty or gross carelessness/sloppiness' (as in Hackett), holding it immaterial whether deliberate or unintentional — no express standalone finding of dishonesty was required. She was publicly reprimanded, fined $10,000 (payable within 180 days) and ordered to pay $2,000 costs (within 30 days). The case was treated as more serious than Lim due to her lack of insight and persistence in blaming counsel, but not warranting removal from the roll.

Duties found breached:

• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Lack of insight; continued to blame counsel and failed to appreciate seriousness of conduct
• Swore an affidavit in the disciplinary proceedings inconsistent with her own file notes (further untruths or gross carelessness)
• Potential serious effect on counsel's professional reputation, who incurred time and cost defending the complaint

Mitigating factors:

• No previous adverse disciplinary findings/otherwise unblemished record
• Generally cooperative and responsive throughout investigation and proceedings
• Made some admissions of fact
• No evidence of further offending