Etter loses appeal, blasts board, quits

FORMER Integrity Commission head Barbara Etter has quit the legal profession.

Ms Etter made the announcement yesterday after her appeal against two orders made by Justice Gregory Geason was dismissed by the Supreme Court.

In December, Justice Geason refused to stay the suspension of Ms Etter’s legal practising certificate and ordered she hand over a case file relating to a 2016 coronial inquest.

Justice Helen Wood yesterday published the Full Court’s reasons for dismissing Ms Etter’s appeal, on behalf of herself, Justice Stephen Estcourt and Acting Justice Shane Marshall.

Justice Geason’s orders arose from a complaint against Ms Etter’s alleged conduct during a coronial inquest into the death of Sally Greer and her response to the Legal Profession Board’s investigation of the complaint.

Initially deemed a suicide, Mrs Greer’s 2007 death was subject to a fresh inquest in 2016.

Pauline Greer, represented by Ms Etter, believed her mother’s death may have been the result of foul play.

Coroner Olivia McTaggart reconfirmed Mrs Greer had taken her own life but also criticised Ms Etter for her conduct including “baseless allegations” about the deceased’s husband and son Robert.

Robert Greer complained to the Legal Profession Board about Ms Etter’s alleged conduct, and, as part of its investigation, the board asked Ms Etter in September to produce her case file.

In October the board wrote to the Law Society of Tasmania directing it to immediately suspend Ms Etter’s practising certificate.

In his reasons published yesterday, Justice Estcourt said he considered Justice Geason’s reasoning was “unimpeachable” and after carefully considering Ms Etter’s arguments, he remained of that view.

Ms Etter, a former member of convicted killer Susan NeillFraser’s legal team, was accompanied in court by NeillFraser’s daughter Sarah Bowles and a number of NeillFraser’s supporters.

Outside the Hobart court, Ms Bowles handed reporters a written statement from Ms Etter.

In the statement, Ms Etter said she had “at all times acted in the best interests of my client, in accordance with my understanding of administrative law, and what I considered to be the public interest”.

“Here in Tasmania it appears that there are too few checks and balances on the power of the Legal Profession Board,” she said.

Ms Etter urged Parliament to amend the Legal Profession Act “to ensure proper checks and balances are imposed”.

“If that does not happen then other lawyers of integrity will be subject to the harrowing and stressful experience that I have since 2014,” she said.

“The result of this experience is that I have quit the profession.”

Ms Etter was given 14 days to respond to the Legal Profession Board’s request that she pay its legal costs.

Here in Tasmania it appears that there are too few checks and balances on the power of the Legal Profession Board

— BARBARA ETTER