Christian Porter’s defamation case against ABC delayed after barrister challenge

Christian Porter’s defamation case against ABC delayed after barrister challenge

Christian Porter’s defamation lawsuit against the ABC has been delayed while a friend of the woman who accused him of rape attempts to remove his barrister from the case.
Federal Court Justice Jayne Jagot adjourned a planned case management hearing on Friday morning after Jo Dyer, the director of Adelaide Writers’ Week, this week filed a separate legal action against defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou.
Ms Dyer is seeking an injunction preventing Ms Chrysanthou from acting for Mr Porter on the basis she gave the barrister confidential information relevant to the defamation case in the course of a lawyer-client relationship last year.

The unexpected legal tussle, scheduled for a three-day hearing from May 24, comes days ahead of a highly-anticipated June hearing in Mr Porter’s case where the former attorney-general will fight to strike out parts of the ABC’s defence.
Justice Jagot initially said on Friday she was minded to either stay the proceedings until Ms Dyer’s application was resolved, or at least extract an undertaking from Ms Chrysanthou that she would stop working on the case in the meantime.
But sparks flew as eminent barrister Bret Walker entered the court to tell Justice Jagot her two options were “wrong in principle, and seriously so”.
Mr Walker, who represented Cardinal George Pell in his successful High Court appeal, told the judge either of her options would set a “dreadful precedent”, effectively allowing any random person to insist a barrister be temporarily barred from appearing in a case.
He also noted Ms Dyer had not asked for Ms Chrysanthou to be removed from the case while her application was resolved.

https://www.news.com.au/national/courts-law/christian-porters-defamation-case-against-abc-delayed-after-barrister-challenge/news-story/eeb274cceab2d7da7527a2d0d7ed47e8