Fingleton appeal ruling today
23.06.2005

THE High Court will decide today whether former Queensland chief magistrate Di Fingleton -- who completed an 18-month suspended sentence this month following six months in jail -- should have been charged with threatening a subordinate magistrate.
The appeal has sent shockwaves through the Queensland legal fraternity after statements by the High Court judges who first considered the appeal, pointing out that Section 51 of the Magistrates Act provides ``protection and immunity'' from prosecution for administrative acts performed by judicial officers.
Should the appeal be upheld, questions will be asked of judges, defence counsel, prosecutors, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Crime and Misconduct Commission about why none of the legal people involved were aware of the immunity provision.
And a win by Ms Fingleton would lay the state government open to a compensation claim from the former chief magistrate for illegal prosecution and jailing, as well as the loss of her $200,000-a-year job.
Her legal advisers said yesterday the issue of Ms Fingleton's reinstatement to the chief magistracy would have to be considered if the appeal were successful.
The case centred on Ms Fingleton's demand in an email to Beenleigh magistrate Basil Gribbin for him to show cause why he should not be demoted after providing an affidavit to magistrate Anne Thacker, who was opposing a transfer. She set out three concerns she had about her ability to work with him as co-ordinating magistrate.
In summing up to the High Court last year, Bret Walker SC argued that his client, Ms Fingleton, should as chief magistrate have been immune from criminal prosecution.
Justice Michael McHugh said that if Ms Fingleton's case were proved, it would be hard to imagine a stronger case of miscarriage of justice.
David Jackson QC, representing the Crown, also conceded to the panel of six High Court judges that the Queensland conviction could be quashed.
``I do not think we would seek to argue that if that were the case, this court could not set aside the conviction,'' Mr Jackson told Chief Justice Murray Gleeson.
Ms Fingleton has written a book, titled Nothing To Do With Justice, about her experiences in the magistracy and her time spent in protective custody at the Brisbane Women's Prison.