The High Court is being asked to decide whether judges can be sued for making a mistake, following the wrongful imprisonment of a Brisbane man in a family law matter.
The man, who can be referred to legally only as “Mr Stradford”, sued Federal Circuit Court Judge Salvatore Vasta, who jailed him for contempt in 2020, and was awarded more than $300,000 a year ago.
In a submission to the High Court filed yesterday, Judge Vasta’s lawyers propose that an “inferior court” judge exercising the judicial power of the Commonwealth has, or should have, no lesser judicial immunity than that afforded to a superior court judge.
They say immunity from civil liability “is conferred by the common law, not as a perquisite of judicial office for the private advantage of judges, but for the protection of judicial independence in the public interest”. They say “the value of judicial independence does not depend on the status of the judge”.
Mr Stradford’s lawyers say if the appeal is allowed, their client will have “no right to compensation for the grievous injustice he has suffered”.
They pointed to Justice Wigney’s Federal Court ruling from August last year, which included that Judge Vasta had engaged in “a thoroughly unacceptable abuse of judicial power” displaying “an almost contemptuous disregard for the rule of law”.
The two-day hearing in Adelaide began yesterday.
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