Lawfuel.co.nz – NZ Legal News and Legal Jobs – It was bad enough when it started but the ongoing investigation into conflict of interest allegations against Supreme Court jurist Bill Wilson escalated in the weekend with publicity over the 18 page complaint written to Judicial Conduct Commissioner Sir David Gascoigne and now complaints regarding Attorney General Chris Finlayson’s alleged reluctance to act on the matter.Lawfuel story
Evidence reveals that Justice Wilson owed the lawyer, Alan Galbraith, QC, $242,804 and that the judge repeatedly failed to fully declare the potential conflict of interest.
The NZ Herald ran deails of the complaint made by Sir Edmund (“Ted”) Thomas that Justice Wilson had “failed to meet the required ethical standards of judicial conduct”, in a complaint to the Judicial Conduct Commissioner and reprinted below.
The letter is attached to the website of Vince Siemer, who appeared before Justice Wilson in the Supreme Court last month on an appeal matter.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Chris Finlayson is the object of an affidavid from wool grower Richard Bell which alleges that National’s Kaikoura MP, Colin King, told him that Mr Finlayson would not act against Justice Wilson because they were friends. “I nearly fell off my chair. I was staggered by the comments and could hardly believe what I was hearing.” See: Lawfuel story
