Keogh v Bartlett [2026] WASC 166 (Link to Austlii).
With thanks to Tina Cockburn for drawing attention to this recent decision of the Supreme Court of Western Australia.
The plaintiff sought orders that each of the first defendant (Mr Bartlett) and the second defendant (FMR Investments), a company of which Mr Bartlett was a director, be convicted of contempt of court by reason of their disclosure of settlement negotiations at a mediation conducted in this Court before a Registrar in other proceedings, to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, in contravention of s 71 of the Supreme Court Act 1935 (WA).
Mr Bartlett and FMR Investments conceded that they committed a civil contempt due to Mr Bartlett’s disclosure of certain statements made in the course of the mediation conference. The court accepted that concession, and determined that each defendant should be ordered to pay a fine of $50,000 and the costs of the two applications on an indemnity basis.
It was open to question, but unnecessary to decide here, whether the unauthorised disclosure of information subject to the statutory obligation of confidence imposed by s 71(1) is to be characterised as a criminal contempt, on the basis that conduct in breach of the obligation interferes or tends to interfere with the course of justice: Lewis v Ogden [1984] HCA 26; (1984) 153 CLR 682, 688; Attorney-General v Leveller Magazine Ltd [1979] AC 440, 449.
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