S UTTON L AWYERS

HUMAN RIGHTS § CIVIL RIGHTS § CORRUPTION § MEDIA

D EFA M AT I O N § P R O F E S S I O N A L N E G L I G E N C E L AW
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Friday 4 September 2009 *** IMPORTANT COMMUNICATION

Mr Bevan Werner
Managing Director
Victoria Legal Aid
GPO Box 4380
Melbourne Victoria 3001

Dear Mr Werner

REQUEST FOR LEGAL AID GRANT - VICTORIAN SUPREME COURT PROCEEDINGS 3731 OF 2009
REQUEST FOR LEGAL AID GRANT - VICTORIAN SUPREME COURT PROCEEDINGS 9263 OF 2008

1. We refer to the separate legal aid grant applications that Sutton Lawyers lodged with your office on 6
August 2009 and further submissions we provided to you by facsimile on 19 and 20 August 2009.
2. We have been provided with a copy of your Office's unsigned ,single page letter (paginated over 2 pages) to
Mr Johnson personally, dated 21 August 2009.
3. Obviously, this letter was issued without regard to our written submissions dated 19 and 20 August 2009, or
the verbal and written submissions that we are informed the Law Institute of Victoria is making to your
Office, on Mr Johnson's behalf.
4. We enclose for your information a copy of Mr Johnson's Notice to the Attorney General and the Victorian
Human Rights Commissioner under section 35 of the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act.
5. We have no desire to restate the obvious as to the many untested and unsettled points of law in these
proceedings that affect most (query, all?) citizens of Victoria and Australia (including every barrister, solicitor
and judge in this State and this Country.
6. Mr Johnson's section 35 Notice sets out some 32 such untested and unsettled points of law.
7. We formally demand that you reconsider the decision communicated to Mr Johnso in your Office's letter of
21 August 2009.
8. We urge that you provide legal funding for these proceedings on public interest grounds.
9. Apart from the representations by Sutton Lawyers, and by the Law Institute of Victoria to this effect, Mr
Johnson has requested the Attorney-General, the Victorian Human Rights Commissioner and Mr Johnson's

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 local member of parliament (Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard) to endorse his requests for legal aid
ffunding on public interest grounds.
10. We are instructed to inform you that should you again refuse to grant legal aid funding for Mr Johnson for
these proceedings, Mr Johnson intends to issue proceedings against Victoria Legal Aid and against its
relevant officers Stacey Kusznir and Bevan Werner, on grounds of breach of statutory duty, and
malfeasance in public office. As a professional courtesy to you we refer you to the leading cases confirming
the validity of these grounds of action against Victoria Legal Aid, Ms Kusznir and Mr Werner, being the Full
High Court decision Northern Territory of Australia v Mengel (1995) 185 CLR 307 as applied in this State
by Harper J in Grimwade v Victoria (1997) Aust Tort Reports 81-422 at 64,074, and Rogers v Legal
Services Commissioner of South Australia (1995) 64 SASR 572, as well as for violation of statutory
responsiblities under the Charter of Human Rights and Responsiblities Act. Accordingly, we are
instructed to request that if your Office again refused to grant Mr Johnson's legal aid request appliations, you
should instead/.additionally, assess them as applications for legal aid funding to sue Victoria Legal Aid and
its relevant officers, Ms Kuznir and Mr Bevan pursuant to these causes of action. That said, we trust that
you and your office will see the public interest in funding lawyers to argue in support of Mr Johnson's legal,
statutory and chartered rights and claims, rather than funding lawyers in a doomed attempt to justify your
Office's failure to support his case.

Kind regards

SUTTON LAWYERS

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