Philip Crutchfield KC will lead Daniel Andrews’ attempts to fight a Supreme Court subpoena
Daniel Andrews is attempting to fight a Supreme Court subpoena in a bid to keep secret his phone records from the day of a near-fatal crash with a teenage cyclist.
Police & Courts
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Daniel Andrews has engaged one of Australia’s most expensive silks in a bid to keep secret his phone records from the day of a near-fatal 2013 car crash with a teenage cyclist.
Philip Crutchfield KC – who charges up to $25,000 a day – will lead Mr Andrews’ attempts to fight a Supreme Court subpoena.
The hearing before Associate Justice Melissa Daly will be held on Monday morning.
High-profile lawyer Leon Zwier, of major law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler, is also representing the former premier and wife Catherine Andrews in the marathon dispute.
Mr Andrews was slapped with a subpoena outside his Mulgrave home in March requiring him to produce a series of documents relating to the January 2013 day of the crash.
Lawyers for Ryan Meuleman, who was 15 when he was struck by the Andrews family’s SUV in Blairgowrie, are seeking to establish who Mr Andrews spoke to – and when – amid concerns of interference after the collision.
But the Andrews’ legal team will argue that the subpoena is “a fishing expedition”.
Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Brett Curran – Mr Andrews’ chief of staff at the time of the incident – has declined to clarify if he received any calls from the then opposition leader from the crash scene.
Ryan’s legal team, led by barrister James Catlin, has accused law firm Slater & Gordon, which acted for him in the aftermath of the crash, of failing to conduct “a full and proper investigation into the circumstances” of the collision.
Slater & Gordon is accused of failing to act in Ryan’s best interests and breaching its duty of care and obligations to him when negotiating his $80,000 TAC compensation payout.
Zwier and Crutchfield are understood to be old friends, mixing in the upper echelons of Melbourne’s legal fraternity.
In 2012, Zwier is reported to have attended a fancy dress party for Crutchfield’s wife Amy’s 40th birthday.
He arrived as a navy admiral, and Crutchfield dressed as a Confederate soldier from the US Civil War.
Mr and Mrs Andrews have always maintained that their Ford Territory was “T-boned” by the bike, while Ryan insists that the car was “speeding” and “seemed to come out of nowhere” when he was struck 17m on from the Melbourne Rd-Ridley St intersection.
Police photographs uncovered by the Herald Sun in November 2022 showed extensive damage to the front of the Andrews’ car and its windscreen.
In April last year, the Herald Sun revealed an Ambulance Victoria report detailed how the Andrews’ SUV “struck” Ryan while “travelling at 40 to 60kmph”.
Last month, the Herald Sun revealed police documents showed Mr Andrews did not call triple-0 until 1.10pm on January 7, 2013, with the crash estimated to have happened four minutes earlier.
There are also questions on the police response, including why officers failed to use breathalysers and why Mr Andrews was allowed to drive the unroadworthy vehicle from the scene.
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