In an unprecedented move Justice Rares has slipped out the back door after handing down his judgement in the James Ashby v Peter Slipper matter and will not hear Peter Slipper’s costs claim against Ashby and his lawyer Michael Harmer. While this might seem minor sometimes it is the small things that can tell a story or in this case add to the story.
Justice Rares has been quoted as saying “he felt it would be more appropriate if another judge heard the argument over costs”. But that is it. The report does not expand on it. So why does he feel it is “more appropriate” for another judge to hear it. To me it is almost an admission that his original judgement was dodgy. (Click here to read the article)
Justice Rares has clearly gone into protection mode to limit the damage that was done to his own reputation when he handed down his judgement in December last year. This site has played the main part in outing Rares for being corrupt and obviously he does not like it and I am sure the court and other judges did not like it either. When he handed down his judgement last year the posts that I have done on Rares was picked up on social media and other sites and traffic to this site skyrocketed. Judges are not mushrooms. Rares is well aware of this site and what I have written about him.
For obvious reasons it is always the judge who has heard the matter who also determines the costs. The obvious reason is that the hearing judge is the one who is fully briefed on the matter and does not have to start from scratch studying the case although it must be noted a cost claim is decided on a narrower set of facts then the original hearing which is meant to deal with all the facts.
Background
It is starting to get a bit complex but I will give a quick overview of where we are at.
Peter Slipper is a federal MP and was speaker of the house. A staff member of James Ashby instituted court proceedings against Mr Slipper and the government for sexual harassment. The government settled for $50,000. Justice Rares in December 2012 threw out Mr Ashby’s case for being an abuse of process.
Peter Slipper filed a costs claim against James Ashby and also his lawyer Michael Harmer. At a directions hearing on the 21/12/12 Justice Rares stood down from hearing the costs claim and transferred it to Justice Jacobson.
Mr Ashby filed an appeal which is still to be heard. His lawyer, Michael Harmer, has also filed an appeal because Justice Rares made adverse findings against him in his judgement.
Mr Ashby has also filed a fresh sexual harassment claim with Fair Work Australia even though Justice Rares dismissed his case.
Peter Slippers cost claim has been stayed until the federal court appeal and the new FWA claim seems to have been put on hold until the appeal as well.
It is being reported that the appeal has been set down for hearing in May although from what I can tell on the courts site this is incorrect and it is only a directions hearing in May.
In the interim Peter Slipper has been charged with criminal offences for abusing tax payer funded expanses. his throws a major spanner in the works as it is predicted he will resign soon to try to protect his federally funded superannuation.
This sites reporting on Rares
Whether or not Justice Rares handed down a corrupt judgement in the Slipper / Ashby matter is open for debate as it is a circumstantial case. Based on all the evidence I say it was a corrupt judgement and others will disagree. But what is not debatable is that Justice Rares is corrupt. He in effect legalised fabricating evidence in the Federal Magistrates court on the basis they cannot do anything because they cannot deal with criminal matters. On that basis you can also commit perjury in the FMC without fear as that is also a criminal offence. I outlined this in a previous post to a certain degree.
Previous posts on Justice Steven Rares
October 2011 – My first post where Rares work gets mention was titled “How the Australian Federal Police and Federal Courts collude to sweep criminal conduct of judges under the carpet. Part one.”
March 2012 – I followed up with a post titled “Justice Rares legalises Optus’s copyright theft and Fairfax Media’s criminal conduct.”
April 2012 – James Ashby institutes proceedings against Peter Slipper and the government. I wrote a post titled “Peter Slipper strikes it lucky and lands corrupt federal court judge Steven Rares to hear his sexual harassment case.”
October 2012 – After continued political statements I wrote a post titled “AG Nicola Roxon gives instructions to her subordinate Justice Steven Rares in the Peter Slipper / James Ashby case”
December 12th 2012 – Justice Rares hands down his judgement. I wrote a post titled “Justice Rares hands down judgement countersigned by AG Nicola Roxon in the Peter Slipper James Ashby matter”
If Ashby’s appeal is upheld it would be sent back to the original judge which is Rares. If the appeal is dismissed the costs claim would be heard (barring being stayed pending an appeal to the High Court) which would have been Rares if he had not stepped down.
I think the appeal will be upheld but sent back to another judge and Rares by stepping down from hearing the costs claim has made it a bit easier to justify handing the matter to another judge.
There is no other valid reason for Rares to step down and I think this is important so that people do not underestimate the power they have by using the likes of Twitter, Facebook and email etc. Do an internet search of terms like “Justice Rares” of “Steven Rares” and the posts that I have done on him come up at the top or near the top.
Rares in under full frontal attack and there is nothing he can do except to back pedal and try to get out of the media spotlight. Every time he is mentioned in the media plenty of traffic comes to this site and people find out what he is really like. The reason he cannot do anything is because the evidence against him is rock solid and even he does not refute it as shown in a previous post. So why should anyone else refute it. (Click here to read the post)
One of the strategies used in the courts is to drag proceedings out as long as possible to wear the other party down both cost wise and time wise. It happens all the time. It is also one of the strategies of this site. Keep the pressure up long-term and wear people down then change will eventually happen. I have been on Rares’s case for a long time now and he did not jump ship for no reason. While there might have been other reasons I have no doubt this site’s reporting was a major reason.
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Categories: Justice Steven Rares, Peter Slipper
Why does this not surprise me? How good do yo think the chance is that we’ll get a truely independant non-corrupt judge for the appeal?
Anyone who’s been following this case would have to know that the abuse of process was not carried out by James Ashby and his lawyer, and the judgement by Justice Rares does not stand well in the opinion of any right-minded person!
I just cannot imagine how all these corrupt people don’t all die of shame!! Don’t they KNOW that we all KNOW about them? How do they think they can get away with these criminal acts? This is not just arrogance … it is sheer bloody mindedness … I need a shower!!
Go back a few years and near No one knew about Rares and the likes corruption. I did’nt know untill I read this site. They did’nt have shame because they got away with their corruption. The tide has turned and they are in the spotlight now so more and more people are seeing whats going on. Rares would be crapping bricks at the moment!
Geez it seems that this website is scaring justice rares off. Justice rares has truly been exposed over the slipper/ashby case. Justice rares will not get away with the corrupt things he’s done. Rares is obviously running to the hills.
When it comes to corruption and our politicians this country is a total joke. Does anyone really believe that this is such a great country anymore?
Justice Rares siding with Labor was not good judgement. He should have expected criticism.
There was a time when I thought our courts could not be corrupted and a lot of “ordinary” people (law abiding citizens) probably thought the same, it was not until I had some dealings with “our” courts (in reality “THEIR” courts) that I discovered how wrong I was and how dishonest the slimy good for nothing rats ( my apologies to all hard working rat families) really are.
hear hear
Just don’t let the quality of your posts get compromised by self-imposed deadlines. Sometimes less is more where quality is concerned.
It is a feather in your cap Shane, that Justice rares has stood down on this one. Let’s hope that this trend will continue, who would have ever thought that the corruption is right through the Judiciary as well. Gillard has a lot to answer for!
THAT IDIOT XENOPHON RANTING ON ABOUT CORRUPTION IN ANOTHER COUNTRY. WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DOES HE THINK IS HAPPENING HERE, THE MORON.
HIS ONLY CONCERN IS HIS RE ELECTION TO HIS CUSHY SEAT.
HE GOES ON ABOUT POKIES, YET ON SKY WE ARE INUNDATED NIGHT AND DAY WITH GAMBLING ADS
READ KANGAROO COURT AND THEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS RAMPANT CORRUPTION NOW.
It would seem that the Justice Rares may have woken up to the fact that his judgement in this case was lacking a legal base and it would not be good for his career to involve himself any further.
Could it be that he once again received some council from the Attorney General. She seems to have inordinate power over him.
Our Australian institutions have become rotten to the core.
The endemic corruption finally starting to come to light in our Federal and State Labor Governments and authorities would be enough to make any African dictator proud.
Through the apathy of our generation in not taking a stance against corruption and dishonesty we have left our children and our children’s children with powerful role models who bully, deceive, cheat and lie just to obtain power and wealth.
A lack any moral compass is not acceptable in our leaders legislators and jurists.
It is time for each of us to stand up and demand an immediate purge.
There is no real reason for Rares to stand down. I and many others have absolutely no respect for him. He is a disgrace to the bench and as Shane says he is corrupt. What all the other Judges should do is refuse to hear the argument on costs and force Rares to hear the case. He gave the corrupt judgement in the first place, as instructed by Roxon, and should be forced to finish the matter. In this country we have now have a Government that is as corrupt as any of the worst third world countries and now we have a Judiciary that is the same as the average third world country. It is time for the other Judges on the bench to step up, stand up to Rares, and let him rot in his own mess. I am sorry but I can’t hide my disgust.
I would like to think that your outing of Rares and Roxon’s actions in this matter are linked to Roxon’s decision to step out of politics, (plus a few other corrupt actions cause what else can one expect from a Labor politician)….perhaps they are all starting to run scared…What the Coalition has to do when they win the next election is start a full enquiry into the unions and the fraud committed by Ms Gillard and investigation of certain judges and thier recent rulings. Time to clean the house of Australia of all the corrupt, greedy, self serving
There have been so many instances lately where judges, at all levels, behave badly and it’s now impossible for me to belive that they are there to dispense justice.
The whole country is going to the dogs (the wealthy wolves actually).
Shane thank-you for all your brave work. My eyes have been opened wide.
Just wondering if enough people contact their MP can a judge be removed? I don’t know how it works…
It takes a joint sitting of parliament to remove a judge as stated in section 72 of the contitution.
(ii) shall not be removed except by the Governor‑General in Council, on an address from both Houses of the Parliament in the same session, praying for such removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity;
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/coaca430/s72.html
Justice Rares qualifies given his “proved misbehaviour”
If an MP is found guilty of an offence which prevents him from receiving his superannuation then how does resigning before the guilty verdict protect his superannuation.????
Resigning might not protect their pension but it is generally thought they will resign to try and protect it which may or may not work