Federal Court Chief Justice Patrick Keane has been appointed as a High Court judge by Julia Gillard. One of Keane’s recent judgements was described as being “an appalling judgment” by Slater and Gordon CEO Andrew Grech. Keane is also the person ultimately responsible for the missing files in the AWU scandal.
His appointment to the High Court is no great surprise as he is a good Labor boy but the timing of the announcement seems odd given he will not start to March next year.
Why Patrick Keane is a disgrace and should not have been appointed in the first place
Keane is a real grub given his judgement in the Merck / Vioxx case where Chief Justice Keane in effect stole money from people who were adversely affected by the drug Vioxx. The drug killed people and caused heart attacks and other ailments. In June I wrote about it in a post titled “Chief Justice Keane comes under attack from CEO of leading law firm” (Click here to read the post)
The post starts off “The matter was a class action against a drug company that was selling drugs that killed and injured people. The same matter was settled in the US for $US4.85 billion (different people suing for the same reasons and same respondent)” Keane and two other judges overturned the trail judge with a clanger of a judgement which leaves one very disturbed on how they came to that judgement given Merck settled for almost $5 billion in the US.
They’re hardly the credentials to be appointed to the High Court of Australia.
The missing files – Sydney – Federal Court of Australia – Matter NI 96/2082
It is no accident that files are missing at the Federal Court of Australia in relation to the AWU scandal, although some have been found others are still missing. Files are also missing from Slater and Gordon and a government department in Western Australia. It is obviously a concerted effort by someone to hide the document trail.
As of 2pm on Friday the 23rd November 2012 I was told by Deputy District Registrar Geoff Segal that the files in matter NI 96/2082 are still missing.
I know the staff and registrars at the Sydney Registry well and they know me and there is no love lost to say the least. But I am on the hunt for those files and/or the person or people who have stolen them.
Geoff Segal reports to Michael Wall who is the District Registrar for the Sydney Registry of the Federal Court of Australia. Mr Wall reports to Warwick Soden who is the Registrar at the Principal Registry which is also based in Sydney and has oversight for all registry staff on a national basis.
I have had direct dealings with Mr Wall and Mr Soden in the past and will keep readers of this site updated on how matters progress.
The timing of the announcement
The timing of the announcement seems odd to me given that Keane does not start at the High Court until March next year which is some 13 weeks away while the last 3 appointments to the High Court have been announced between 4 to six weeks before their start date.
There might not be much in it and probably it is nothing more than the government announcing the appointment early. But when you are dealing with corruption anything that is unusual should be scrutinised.
If the missing files are not found soon there will be a major storm for Keane given that it falls under his responsibility as the current Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia. He is the equivalent of an Executive Chairman of a company and has authority over all staff.
So it would be potently highly embarrassing for the government to have announced his appointment in 2, 4 or 6 weeks as the missing file scandal was escalating with Keane having responsibility.
The Attorney-General Nicola Roxon announced Keane’s appointment on Tuesday (20/11/12) with a start date of the 1st of March next year when Justice Dyson Heydon retires which is some 13 weeks away.
Compare this to the other 3 High Court judges which Labor have appointed since they came top power in 2007.
Chief Justice Robert French – 4 weeks to start date – appointment announced on the 30th July 2008 – started on the 29th August 2008. (Click here to read more)
Justice Virginia Bell – 6 weeks to start date – appointment announced on the 16th December 2008 – started on the 3rd February 2009 (Click here to read more)
Justice Stephen Gageler – 6 weeks to start date – appointment announced on the 21st August 2012 – started on the 9th of October 2012 (Click here to read more)
Maybe the government is just getting in early with announcing the appointment. But I know for a fact if the missing court files are not found soon then the blowtorch is going to be put on Patrick Keane in a major way. The reason I know this for a fact is because I am at least one person who is going to do it.
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Categories: Chief Justice Patrick Keane, Federal Court of Australia
Nice post Shane and timely … next week will be a showdown a la “OK Corral” style … guns blazing with Albanese looking each and every way to shut it all down [Question time].
EYE-BALL
You can bet she has something dodgy up her sleeve, there is always an ulterior motive when Juliar makes a move, it will probably be something to aid the coverup of the last few years. The plot thickens, Allan MyalupWA.
What you report is distressing. Hopefully there is an innocent explanation for it all. If your report has legs the public confidence in the administration of justice is stuffed.
Persons who might be culpable should firstly think of Australia and public confidence in the administration of justice, if they do not, they do not belong in office, either private or public. If the curtain comes down, no leniency should be gained. Remember former Justice Einfield’s fate, all for a few driving points and $77.00. (?) Very
distressing indeed, for a lawyer of many
years. If the PM is compromised, the PM under the Westminster system must genuinely explain or resign. No other standard or convenience applies. It is a matter of honour, our soldiers allegedly are dying for democracy”s honour, the PM should lead by example according to her conscience. If it is otherwise and events alleged are sustained, then those involved should keep in mind, Mr. Einfield.
For a clarrifiction, I should note that Mr.
Einfield’s gaol sentence was, as I recall, for his ‘misleading’ the magistrate in his evidence to the court. So what happens when a PM is not fair dinkum with the highest authority in the land, the Federal Parliament? All politicians should also take note, we expect nothing less.
Misleading….that will be the crime…but who in any of our higher courts will be able to state …that they have no bias….this is the worry
Einfeld. Now those were the days…
We do not have a valid PM. We have an imposter and all her deputies are no better.
I can just imagine how much money has been paid to Unions to keep jobs going and it could be that there are more slush funds they do not want us to see.
If the Libs get in next year, I hope they follow up these slush funds so they can reveal true extent of the waste of public and private monies
The criminal lowlife to whom you refer is Marcus EINFELD. Not Einfield. You also mention the PM leading by example according to her conscience. The trouble is she doesn’t have one. If Gillard had a conscience she wouldn’t be in the mess she is in now in the first place.
If the Prime Minister “Has done nothing wrong” then she should welcome an in-depth investigation into the matter. If she has nothing to hide, what’s the problem?
PEGGY BALFOR, I AGREE WITH YOU, HAVE YOU EVER HEARD HER SAY I WANT THE POLICE TO INVESTIGATE THIS CORRUPTION AND CLEAR MY NAME.
JUST HEARD BRUCE WILSON HAS CLEARED GILLARD.
NO DOUBT HE IS A FEW MILLION RICHER..
No. He had not cleared her. He has just attracted the interest of more honest journalists who will place more focus on him. I hope I correct.
I have read through the above posting and it’s so tragic that personal agendas are clearly in place and at the expense of this country. As a observer of the Canberra theater -of 40 years, this garbage on the stage and off stage is 100 times worse than what we saw under the Whitlam years and that government’s off shore borrowing project that came unstuck. There are many questions that need answering but as more pages continue to be added to this country’s federal political history book, it shows how bad our political system has become. I also note the responses posted re the above and impressive. The Federal Government is really showing up its trues colors and really not interested in doing the right thing by the people.
Could it be that Gillard is preparing for the inevitable, appointing Keane may very well be a strategy in her favour, when the corruption goes to the high court could it be that Keane will be the presiding judge.
Gillard is most definately corrupt, the evidence is in the missing files, but she is no fool either, the fact the condeming files have been removed from the registrars office and elsewhere to protect her involvement in the fraud speaks volumes to most Australians.
I predicted that this week,instead of facing Julie Bishop, Gillard would develop an illness to keep her away for at least 1week, that might still happen. It looks as though she and McTernan are going slowly, if no-one believes WILSONs word that she knows äbsolutely nothing”, he might be dragged in to slow down questions until Parliament closes. Another DIVERSION to turn the media away from Gillard! If all else fails, Moira Gillard might be asked to have a heart attack….then Gillard can become too sensitive to discuss AWU CRIMES until next year! She certainly is appointing her pals to the High Court!
unbelievable! what more can i say?
well, i guess there is something even more incredible than that… it’s bad enough that our prime minister is involved such questionable activity AND refuses to explain anything, but what leaves me speechless is the involvement of the main stream media in helping to cover it all up. surely this conduct is far more important to the aussie people than the sport or wonder bra stories they push on us isn’t it?
for this massive cover up they are equally as guilty as the worst of the worst criminals in our system. for any blissfully unaware person out there that stumbles upon this page, this is proof beyond a doubt that you are being robbed and hoodwinked from the top all the way down. time for the average australian to open their eyes and/or be made aware of what’s really going on. i share virtually every new article on facebook so that people will eventually see and take an interest.
i am aghast that a crooked pollie can appoint another crooked person to the high court of Australia seems we will never get out of this quicksand. i have got to the point when any labor minster gets on TV i have to turn it off or switch to another channel it’s getting that bad.sorry to hear you didn,t get as much money you would have liked i have passed on a $100 dollars hope that helps a bit
Nothing is a surprise in this matter. It’s getting murkier and murkier by the moment. What a break over the Christmas parliamentary recess will offer for a lot of people who are now having great difficulty in offering plausible explanations about this whole sordid matter.
WHY IS WILSON STILL FREE? BECAUSE THE AWU SAVED HIS NECK BY NOT HAVING HIM CHARGED.
What a game this is becoming! A game of strategy for survival. You only have to look at how gillard is dressing, her body language and what comes out of her mouth. It is so strategised, planned and orchestrated to try and show a woman in control. The pressure has to be near boiling point! No one give up, just keep hammering! Good question Abominal Snow Woman?
I stumbled across this post recently.
Your basis for accusing Keane of corruption seems to consist of:
1. He once made a decision you disagree with (astoundingly, so did the losing side’s lawyer).
2. Some documents when missing in a registry while he was chief justice
3. His appointment was announced in advance.
None of that sounds very convincing to me as evidence of corruption.
I will deal with each point.
You say: 1. “He once made a decision you disagree with (astoundingly, so did the losing side’s lawyer).”
I notice you do not justify his decision just make a flippant remark. Tell me this. How can Vioxx kill people and cause heart attacks in the US but not in Australia?
This is what it says on Bloomberg: Merck & Co. paid claims to the families of 3,468 users of its Vioxx painkiller who died of heart attacks or strokes, a court-appointed administrator told a judge today.
A $4.85 billion settlement fund made payments to the families of 2,878 Vioxx users who died of heart attacks and 590 who died of strokes, according to Lynn Greer of BrownGreer LLP, a law firm in Richmond, Virginia, that analyzed 59,365 claims. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-27/merck-paid-3-468-death-claims-to-resolve-vioxx-suits.html
It is like saying asbestos kills people in Australia but not other countries. Justice Keane has not complained about what I have written about him why should you. Keane has also not complained about Slater and Gordon CEO Andrew Grech saying he handed down “an appalling judgment”. If there was no basis Keane could sue both me and Grech for defamation.
2. You say “Some documents when missing in a registry while he was chief justice”
He is still Chief Justice of the Federal Court until next year when he starts at the High Court. It is not just that the files are missing from the Federal Court, they are also missing from a Western Australian government department and Slater and Gordon. If files were missing from one place you might think nothing of it. But when it is from three unrelated places about the same matter only a fool would think it is an accident.
3. You say “His appointment was announced in advance.” I only surmised about why his announcement was made so early, nothing more. Read the post again.
I could have written a lot more about the corruption, but that was enough in the post for now. I can back it up with a lot more evidence.
If you want to respond then justify his judgement.
i noticed that people like james regularly pop up here. the people who frequent this site are well and truly on to your kind and all your tactics james.
they have two purposes for posting here:
1) trolling – that is, to take comments off topic and create a diversion. they are mostly if not always associated with a union or the ALP or something/someone similar. basically they have a vested interest of some kind to hide the truth and try to defend people who have serious questions over their heads.
2) to plant seeds of doubt for anyone who happens to visit these pages for the first few times and doesn’t really understand how these criminals work.
they often do posts right at the very end when the commentary section has slowed down or stopped, and they can get their propaganda right at the bottom where people can see it more easily. or alternatively if they can jump in quickly they can put it up the top.
james, i have a question for you… why don’t any of the people shane has exposed on his site dare to come after him, for example judges and lawyers with years of slimy and cunning legal expertise? surely they could squash him for defamation if he was even slightly in error. i welcome posts like yours because we can expose even more the filthy tactics used to hide all their crimes and all the stooges they use to achieve their criminal goals.
Are you living on another planet or what? A crooked Pollie, Julia the harridan has appointed another crooked person as a high court Judge. Obviously you are a labor crony.
Merck settled the US claims. The reason why Merck settled the claims in the US but not here is, I suspect, because their potential exposure in the US was so much greater. I also suspect that any US class action would have been brought in a jury trial jurisdiction. It is much easier to convince a jury of negligence than a judge as they are likely to feel sorry for the plaintiff and angry at the defendant. That does not necessarily lead to a solid basis for adjudicating negligence and can lead to massive, unfounded judgments. So, I assume that Merck’s decision to settle the US claim was risk management. Such a settlement cannot usually be used as evidence of liability nor is there any precedent decision for an Australian Court to rely on.
The initial judgement in Australia was given by Jessup J in the Federal Court. He found that Merck were not liable in negligence but that they were liable for a breach of the Trade Practices Act because the drug was not fit for use as an arthritic treatment due to its propensity for causing myocardial infarction. Merck appealed that portion of the decision to the Full Court of the Federal Court and the plaintiff appealed other findings of the trial judge. A joint judgment was given by judges Keane, Gordon and Bennett. They all found that the TPA liability was an incorrect decision.
There was no dispute that Vioxx caused heart attacks and strokes. Essentially, what the case boiled down to was, did Merck know, or ought it have known, that Vioxx carried a greater risk of myocardial infarction prior to the release of the approve study in 2004. Had they known or ought to have known, then the plaintiff would have succeeded in negligence (and also under the TPA). Four judges (not just Keane) found that Merck did not know or ought to have known about the increased risk prior to 2004. Once they did know, they withdrew the drug. The plaintiff carries the onus of proving negligence and it failed to do so. In my view, the judgments are fairly unremarkable.
The situation is very different to the asbestos cases. In those cases James Hardie knew that exposure to asbestos caused deadly diseases and did nothing. In fact, they strove to conceal the fact.
As to why Keane doesn’t sue you for defamation, I would suggest he either doesn’t know about your comments or has chosen to ignore them. That is not the same thing as accepting them as true by his silence. Judges rarely respond to criticism. As for Grech’s comments, he was no doubt very upset at losing a few million in fees. However, his comments to not appear to be defamatory. Saying that someone made a bad decision, even an appalling one, does not constitute defamation. If he had said the judges were incompetent or corrupt, that would be a different matter.
As for the comments about missing files and the announcement of his appointment, it seems that, in an article, along with some embedded links, which suggests that a judge is corrupt, the implication is that he is connected, corruptly, to the missing files and the announcement. Why mention them otherwise. If that was not your intention, then the sections of the article probably aren’t of much importance.
As for why I bothered to comment, I was bored one night and marginally disturbed by your allegations of corruption with no basis whatsoever. Sometimes one should leave these things alone, I suppose.
I have just seen Concerned Aussies post, for what it is worth, and I know you won’t believe me, I am not affiliated with the ALP. I think certain recent government projects constitute wastage of taxpayer money to a disgraceful degree. I didn’t vote for them last election and won’t be doing so at the next election. As for the lateness of my reply, it was only four days after the first reply and made the same day I came across the website. I am very familiar with trolling. I don’t think my post (or this one) are inflammatory or unfounded. I am presenting a point of view which I believe to be justifiable. If dissent is not tolerated on the site, I will depart. Otherwise, I’d be happy to carry on until I get bored or find something else to do.
As for why nobody responds to the allegations on this website, I can probably think of a few reasons off the top of my head:
1. Acknowledging the allegations gives them currency and coverage. Usually that plays into the hands of the person making the defamatory statements who is seeking media coverage for their agenda
2. Whilst they no doubt have good prospects of success for defamation, they would be reluctant to be involved in costly litigation which will almost inevitably result in a judgment which the author can’t satisfy.
3. Judges have traditionally adopted a policy of not responding to criticism
If the author does want to be taken seriously, then he needs to back up his claims with evidence which would be admissible in court and not merely bare assertions. He will then be taken very seriously. By everyone.
You say “I assume that Merck’s decision to settle the US claim was risk management” So you call paying $4.85 billion risk management. You have to be kidding don’t you?
You say “The plaintiff carries the onus of proving negligence and it failed to do so. In my view, the judgments are fairly unremarkable.” Keane and the other two clowns said that the plaintiff had to prove that the drug actually caused the heart attack not the probability that it did. That is near on impossible. What a joke, Vioxx kills people and causes heart attacks which is a fact, yet the victim is the one who has to prove in their case the drug did it. Merck should be made to prove that the drug did not. And you are right Keane’s judgement is fairly unremarkable as there is plenty of corruption in Australian courts.
Irrespective of whether or not Keane knows about my post. He certainly knows about Andrew Grech’s comments and his failing to respond makes him look like a joke in the whole legal community. And judges do sue for defamation. so do not try and say they do not respond.
You seem to have all these excuses of why they do not sue, except you miss the most obvious. I get my facts right.
ok, so you say you are not affiliated with the ALP. good. what about a union then? or a judge or another questionable person mentioned in this or another post? i just ask questions because it seems astounding to me that such a huge injustice had occurred and so much indication that a biased and corrupt decision was made, yet you pretty much dismiss it all outright as though every is fine and nothing funny went on. it displays to me that you have some kind of interest in keeping this issue down or protecting the reputations of the people involved.
$4.85 billion risk management! – now that was funny and shane already responded to that one.
“There was no dispute that Vioxx caused heart attacks and strokes.” you said everything right there james. you go on to say “did they know?” and then effectively “no” using the james hardie asbestos example. even if that were true (which i doubt) so what? how about i mix up a coctail of various drugs and tell you to take it – should i have tested it first thoroughly to make sure it’s safe for you to use? isn’t it a requirement for all manufacturers of anything to ensure their product is safe? or do we have an exemption for the pharmaceutical industry?
“dissent is not tolerated” – this i feel is just another tool for manipulation of the unwary mind. come up with facts or even just a plausible justification and people will open their minds and explore it further. in fact, i’d say that the people who frequent this site are very open minded in that they have been able to sift through the utter rubbish promoted by the politicians, judiciary, legal system, big business, unions and the main stream media. they have been able to see through all the lies and deception and see how the world really works. it is quite an amazing experience to look back and see how we have been hoodwinked and how some of us have been able to break free.
your three reasons for why nobody responds to these allegation truly exposes who you are. it is not the way the world works. regardless of the cost (especially for some of these people earning/stealing vast sums of money (plus they might self represent, have a mate who can do it cheaply/favour, or get the union members or taxpayers to foot the bill), even if there was no chance of recovering any money you would want to prove that they are defamatory and shut them down from doing it any more. if they could shut down KCOA they would. but they cannot. (which is why they did the finkelstein report so they can try to do it legally without any proof of any wrongdoing, but that’s another post – search for it on KCOA.)
shane is taken very seriously. there are a lot of people who want to silence him because their enterprises are being exposed. i’m sure he HAS got the proof before he labels anyone a criminal, fraudster, or incompetent.