“The problem is that even the dumbest lawyer is smarter than many of the NCAT members”
Too true. IMO, NCAT members need to be spoon fed. That’s what the lawyers do for their client who is usually an OC.
Maybe we need to spoon feed members as well as lawyers. We need more cases won against deficient ECs and OCs using these sort of ideals:
Nulama Village P/L v Owners Strata Plan 61788
“The executive committee members as office bearers should at all times act in a transparent way, be accountable, and act in the best interests of the owners corporation.”
Jennifer Elizabeth James v The Owners Strata Plan No. SP 11478:
[54] …There is no doubt that a person exercising a statutory power has a duty to do so with reasonable care. As the High Court stated in Caledonian Collieries Ltd v Spiers [1957] HCA 14; (1956-1957) 97 CLR 202 at 220, it is a “well-settled principle” that:
… when statutory powers are conferred they must be exercised with reasonable care …
and as Jimmy T says the lawyers are just doing the bidding of an EC/OC, however:
CIVIL AND ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL ACT 2013 – SECT 71
False or misleading statements
71 False or misleading statements
A person must not, in any proceedings or application to the Tribunal, provide any information, or make any statement, to the Tribunal knowing that the information or statement is false or misleading in a material respect.
CIVIL AND ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL ACT 2013 – SECT 73
Contempt of Tribunal
73 Contempt of Tribunal
(1) The Tribunal has, if it is alleged, or appears to the Tribunal on its own view, that a person is guilty of contempt of the Tribunal committed in the face of the Tribunal or in the hearing of the Tribunal, the same powers as the District Court has in those circumstances in relation to a contempt of the District Court
…
(2) A person is guilty of contempt of the Tribunal if the person does or omits to do any thing that, if the Tribunal were a court of law having power to commit for contempt, would be contempt of that court unless the person establishes that there was a reasonable excuse for the act or omission.
…
so if you’ve got good admissible evidence that the EC is not acting transparently, accountably and in the best interests of the OC and are by act or ommission misleading the tribunal, put your evidence together and spoon feed the NCAT, quoting their own cases and their Act in the process
That’s how legal arguments get won.