JULIA JOHNSTON
JurisdictionAustralia — Western Australia
BodyLegal Practice Board of Western Australia (LPBWA)
Professionlawyer — PO Box 3216 EAST PERTH WA 6892
Case numberLegal Profession Complaints Committee v Johnston [2013] WASAT 159
Date22 August 2013 and 10 September 2013
HearingState Administrative Tribunal
OutcomeUnsatisfactory Professional Conduct. Reprimand
Allegation / charges
Unsatisfactory Professional Conduct. Reprimand
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
SanctionReprimand
CostsAUD 2,500
Dishonesty foundNo
Julia Johnston, an experienced legal practitioner acting as independent children's lawyer in Family Court proceedings, was found by consent to have engaged in unsatisfactory professional conduct by failing to make appropriate enquiries and by disclosing confidential information about the father's mental health to the child's school. The Tribunal accepted the parties' agreed penalty of a reprimand as appropriate given strong mitigating factors, and ordered her to pay $2,500 costs. The father's application for a compensation order (of $50,000-$60,000) was refused because no loss was shown to result from the conduct. No dishonesty was found.
Duties found breached:
Mitigating factors:
- Senior practitioner with over 30 years' experience and no disciplinary record
- Disclosure of confidential information was well motivated by concern for welfare of the child and others at the school
- Made enquiries of the officer with carriage of the charges
- Limited time available to make enquiries
- Commendable commitment to welfare and protection of children through Legal Aid ICL work
- Significant community service and professional association contributions
- Demonstrated insight, remorse and apology; essentially conceded the allegations