Mere weeks after being embroiled in one of the most embarassing case-management stuff-ups of 2009, Brydens Compensation Lawyers are apparently involved in yet another, though potentially more damaging, public spat. (Thanks very much the anonymous tipster alerting us to this gold.)

By way of background, a website apparently exists in which ordinary, non-legal folks can post legally oriented questions; lawyers then frequent the site (www.justanswer.com) and help these people with their question for a small fee (we think).

We were sent a link to the following incredible legal query and its associated responses:

hardly surprising that one would jump off the planet

My wife advertised her car for sale and had an email response from a very overbearing person, he was dictating to her, what he was going to do. It frightened her… she asked me to reply, which i did… I then received 8 emails in a row. Now the person is openly defaming me, calling me a psychotic. drug user, a liar, a loser, insane and the list goes on… he has sent some 50 emails from his place of employment…It’s no use going to his employers, he’s the CEO, and it’s a law firm… how do I stop him? …The car sales site clearly showed my wife to be japanese by her name, and I believe he was trying to intimidate her from teh beginning… he has gone completely off the planet.

This query was reponded to by lawyer “Maurice” who advised:

…if he has placed your wife in the state of mind you have described where she feels threatened you neeed to call the police… communicating with the owners of the law firm needs to be the next step… it goes to the very heart of how the law firm want to be represented in the market place… I would put a call into the firm and ask the question “who are the owners”, or “if one were to lodge a complaint against the CEO of the firm who would I need to contact or speak to?” If you dont get the information you need you may need to contact the local media in QLD…”

Finally, the disgruntled salesman wrote this:

Without doubt he is the CEO. I have ascertained who one of the partners is…’ he is a councillor of the Law Society. I went to the law firm yesterday; to be shepherded by a solicitor who says it’s nothing to do with the firm, it’s a private matter. I’m going to name names now Maurice; his name is XXXX XXXXXXXX, he is the CEO/General Manager of Brydens Compensation Lawyers in Sydney. I have just now emailed Robert Bryden, partner, and have requested an urgent response.

The dialogue ends at this point and it is unclear how, or even if, Brydens Lawyers have resolved the matter.

Are you ready to go ‘completely off the planet’ on this fabulous Friday?

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Accompanied by a picture depicting a very concerned and very believable elderly couple seeking legal advice, Brydens Lawyers asserts on its website:

Winning People

Any organisation is only as good as its people - and we have some of the best there are! People trained to listen, sensitively and carefully. People who passionately care about the rights of citizens. People who want to see justice done. People who share in the achievement of fair play.

However every once in a while, even the ‘winning-est’ of institutions, of which Brydens Lawyers is irrefutably a constituent (‘our proven track record is that we win 98% of cases on behalf of our clients’) will recruit bit of a lemon. For Brydens, this appears to have been former lawyer Jason Dimmock.

when winning is everything

As reported yesterday by SMH:

Jason Dimmock… was appointed by Brydens to represent two parties in a dispute over a will. But he failed to comply with a string of court orders between October 2007 and May 2008, neglecting to tell his clients of mediation and court hearings and to file affidavits.

Justice McColl noted:

‘The solicitor’s conduct of the matter was, to use the word that appears in one of the intra-firm communications, ‘woeful’. …Mr Dimmock was left in charge of the defence … notwithstanding considerable material in Brydens’ possession demonstrating, to put it as neutrally as possible, his unreliability in relation to matters he was given to handle… [This decision] ‘indicated a substantial failure on Mr Hagipantelis and Mr Bryden’s [Dimmock’s principals] parts to appreciate the extent to which they had failed, in the circumstances, to discharge their duty to the Court.’

The court ordered Brydens partners Mr Bryden and Mr Hagipantelis to be joined as respondents to the appeal and to pay the costs of three separate hearings into the dispute. Let’s hope Brydens ‘isn’t only as good as’ Dimmock, Hagipantelis & Bryden.

Intriguingly, the webpage on Bryden’s website entitled “How Winning Feels“ reads:

‘case studies currently being compiled’.

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