Coroner & Legal
The Victorian Injustice System
Tess Lawrence
Tess Lawrence is a professional journalist who, in our experience, is of unimpeachable integrity, high character and great goodness of heart.
And so we are saddened to report that Independent Australia’s contributing editor-at-large has recently been declared bankrupt for debts she claims she does not owe — after having being forced, due to financial hardship, to represent herself in court. In a sworn Affidavit, which the Victorian Supreme Court appears to have entirely ignored, and that we include in the following piece, Lawrence alleges that she was subjected to death threats in an interval in an earlier proceeding in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court by an opposing solicitor in an effort to procure her to change her sworn testimony.
Medical diagnoses show that the trauma associated with these threats triggered a breakdown that, despite her having worked as a journalist in war-zones, and having been physically assaulted on several occasions in the course of professional duties, caused Lawrence to lose the mental and physical ability to represent herself. Despite this, the court decided to not take any of these matters into account and carried through with judgement against her even in her absence while she received treatment.
This case has gravely significant implications about the state of justice in Victoria. We urge you to read the story and express your support in the comments after the piece for the doughty and fearless Tess Lawrence as she continues to fight against her persecutors. Without our diligent efforts to redress the root causes of such injustice, what has happened to Tess Lawrence can, of course, at any time, happen to any one of us.
Victorian Justice: what happens outside Court stays outside Court
• Matt Norman’s YouTube of the issue: HERE