Barbara Etter quits law after Supreme Court dismisses appeals

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

Barbara Etter leaves the Supreme Court in Hobart after the decision.

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

Ms Etter made the announcement after the Supreme Court dismissed her appeal against the suspension of her legal practising certificate. The court also dismissed her appeal against an order she hand over a case file.

Justice Helen Wood on Monday published the Full Court’s decisions for dismissing the appeals, on behalf of herself, Justice Stephen Estcourt and Acting Justice Shane Marshall.

Ms Etter appealed against two orders made by Justice Gregory Geason in December.

Justice Geason refused to stay the suspension of Ms Etter’s practising certificate, which was directed by the Legal Profession Board.

He also ordered Ms Etter produce a case file relating to the coronial inquest into the death of Pelverata woman Sally Greer.

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

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

Coroner Olivia McTaggart reconfirmed Ms 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 on Monday, 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 Neill-Fraser’s legal team, was accompanied in court by Neill-Fraser’s daughter Sarah Bowles and a number of Neill-Fraser’s supporters.

Outside the 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.