Criminal lawyer Zali Burrows has added to her legal costs after failing in her bid to have a bankruptcy notice served on her by her former lawyers set aside.
The minutiae of the legal dispute between Burrows, 51, and her former solicitors, Macpherson Kelley Lawyers, has been scrutinised by six different judges and ground through several appeals since she obtained their legal advice on a personal matter in 2011, when she was still a law student and the firm was known as M&K Sydney.
Criminal solicitor Zali Burrows has failed to fend off a bankruptcy order brought by her former lawyers.Credit: Kate Geraghty
She would later sue the firm for professional negligence, alleging that her solicitor failed to chase up $12,239.83 in costs from an opponent that were ordered in her favour. But her claim against the firm was thrown out of court and in 2020 the NSW District Court ordered her to pay Macpherson Kelley $130,000 in costs.
Last year, the firm served her with a bankruptcy notice demanding payment.
However, Burrows applied to set aside the bankruptcy notice on the basis that she did not become aware of it until the 21-day compliance period had expired. The notice was issued on April 21, allegedly served on a staff member at Burrows’ office on May 24 and she claimed not to have received it until June 16. She argued it should either be set aside or the time for compliance should be extended. Her application was refused by the primary judge and she appealed against the decision.
Zali Burrows when she was a federal candidate for the Palmer United Party.
In his reasons handed down on Tuesday, Federal Court Justice Ian Jackman said that in raising this appeal Burrows faced the “very substantial” challenge of overturning 20 years of precedents that accepted bankruptcy documents could be served by post, email, facsimile or left in an envelope at a person’s last known address, and did not have to be physically placed into their hands.
Two Full Court decisions and seven first instance decisions had agreed with this interpretation, Jackman said. “That phalanx of legal authority has never been doubted in any judicial reasoning.”
He declined to overturn the decision not to set aside the bankruptcy notice, with the effect that the bankruptcy notice stands unless Burrows pays Macpherson Kelley Lawyers $130,000, and ordered Burrows to pay the costs. Burrows said her counsel would consider the latest judgment carefully for any grounds to appeal.
Burrows has represented former Auburn mayor Salim Mehajer, murderer Bassam Hamzy and terrorist Hamdi Alqudsi, and briefed counsel on behalf of several clients held in immigration detention in human rights cases. She stood as a candidate for the Palmer United Party in the seat of Blaxland in the federal election of 2013.
She filed a separate claim in the NSW Supreme Court on October 20 last year to have the $130,000 order against her set aside, alleging that Macpherson Kelley Lawyers had acted fraudulently in obtaining the order.
In December, she applied to the Federal Circuit and Family Court for an extension to the bankruptcy notice until that matter could be heard. However, Judge Nicholas Manousaridis dismissed her application, finding that she had “no reasonable prospects” of setting aside the judgment debt on any of her fraud claims.
Burrows has since lodged an amended statement of claim in the Supreme Court, alleging Macpherson Kelley made false statements to the court in 2020 when obtaining the $130,000 costs order. Macpherson Kelley say in their defence that part of the evidence they provided to the court was factually wrong but claim this was immaterial to the outcome.
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