Patel Sues Legal Team in QLD for Inexperience
Monday 10 March 2014 @ 9.30 a.m. | Judiciary, Legal Profession & Procedure | Legal Research
Jayant Patel, the medical practitioner convicted of three counts of manslaughter and one count of unlawfully doing grievous bodily harm in the Queensland Supreme Court, has sued QLD Legal firm Raniga Lawyers and barrister Michael Woodford, over their lack of experience in cases similar to his own.
Dr Patel's charges arose out of surgery conducted by the Patel on four patients while he was employed as a surgeon at the Bundaberg Base Hospital. His lengthy legal trial culminated in a High Court Appeal which found that there was a miscarriage of justice in the conduct of the Dr Patel's trial arising from the prosecution radically changing its case to focus on the appellant's decision to undertake the surgical procedures as opposed to the conduct of the surgery.
Dr Patel is suing his legal team for over $884,000, alleging that Raniga Lawyers failed to tell him it was "inexperienced" in conducting criminal trials. He alleged the firm, which should have supervised his defence, delegated all planning and presentation for his 2010 trial to Woodford.
Dr Patel says Woodford was a junior, inexperienced counsel who did not have the skills of a reasonably competent solicitor. Raniga Lawyers should have properly briefed competent counsel "skilled in the practice of...Criminal law" in Queensland, as the charges were serious and Patel faced jail if found guilty.
Raniga Lawyers also allegedly failed to consider the need to retain expert evidence to rebut medical expert witnesses's claims about Patel's competence as a surgeon.
Patel is suing for the same amount he paid the law firm to conduct his defence.
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