FRENCH CJ, KIEFEL, BELL, GAGELER AND KEANE JJ. In these proceedings, the appellants claim that earlier litigation to enforce a guarantee was settled on terms unfavourable to the first appellant as a result of the negligent advice of the respondent, his solicitor at the time. The respondent has raised the advocate's immunity from suit as a complete answer to the appellants' claim. The respondent contends that the advocate's immunity extends not only to negligent advice which leads to a final judicial determination, but also to negligent advice which leads to an agreed settlement.
The advocate's immunity
In D'Orta‑Ekenaike v Victoria Legal Aid, this Court held that the advocate's immunity from suit under the common law of Australia in respect of his or her participation in the judicial process extends to protect a solicitor involved in the conduct of litigation in court. In reaching that conclusion, the Court declined to reconsider its earlier decision in Giannarelli v Wraith, in which it was held that the advocate's immunity extends to "work done out of court which leads to a decision affecting the conduct of the case in court." That extension of the scope of the immunity was justified by the view that, as Mason CJ said: "it would be artificial in the extreme to draw the line at the courtroom door." But the immunity was not extended to all work in any way connected to litigation. Mason CJ explained:
"Preparation of a case out of court cannot be divorced from presentation in court. The two are inextricably interwoven so that the immunity must extend to work done out of court which leads to a decision affecting the conduct of the case in court. But to take the immunity any further would entail a risk of taking the protection beyond the boundaries of the public policy considerations which sustain the immunity. I would agree with McCarthy P in Rees v Sinclair where his Honour said:
'… the protection exists only where the particular work is so intimately connected with the conduct of the cause in Court that it can fairly be said to be a preliminary decision affecting the way that cause is to be conducted when it comes to a hearing.'"
This statement of the scope of the immunity by Mason CJ was confirmed in D'Orta, in which Gleeson CJ, Gummow, Hayne and Heydon JJ said of the boundary of the immunity:
"there is no reason to depart from the test described in Giannarelli as work done in court or 'work done out of court which leads to a decision affecting the conduct of the case in court' or … 'work intimately connected with' work in a court. (We do not consider the two statements of the test differ in any significant way.)"
The issue
The present case raises the question whether the immunity extends to negligent advice which leads to the settlement of a case by agreement between the parties. The appellants contend that D'Orta does not support that extension. In the alternative, they argue that the immunity should be abolished.
The abolition of the immunity would require this Court to overrule its decisions in D'Orta and Giannarelli. For the reasons which follow, the appellants' argument in this regard should be rejected. On the other hand, the appellants' argument as to the scope of the immunity should be accepted. The authoritative test for the application of the immunity stated in D'Orta and Giannarelli is not satisfied where the work of the advocate leads to an agreement between parties to litigation to settle their dispute. No doubt an advice to cease litigating which leads to a settlement is connected in a general sense to the litigation which is compromised by the agreement. But the intimate connection required to attract the immunity is a functional connection between the advocate's work and the judge's decision. As Mason CJ said in Giannarelli, the required connection is between the work in question and the manner in which the case is conducted in court. Both D'Orta and Giannarelli were concerned with claims which impugned a judicial determination to which the allegedly negligent work of the advocate contributed. As will be seen from a closer consideration of the reasoning in D'Orta, the public policy, protective of finality, which justifies the immunity at the same time limits its scope so that its protection can only be invoked where the advocate's work has contributed to the judicial determination of the litigation.
In short, in order to attract the immunity, advice given out of court must affect the conduct of the case in court and the resolution of the case by that court. The immunity does not extend to preclude the possibility of a successful claim against a lawyer in respect of negligent advice which contributes to the making of a voluntary agreement between the parties merely because litigation is on foot at the time the agreement is made. That conclusion is not altered by the circumstance that, in the present case, the parties' agreement was embodied in consent orders.
The guarantee proceedings
The first appellant and Ms Barbara Jane Lord ("the guarantors") guaranteed payment of the liabilities of a company to a bank. Ms Lord is not a party to the present litigation. The second appellant is a party to the current proceedings by virtue of an assignment to him by the first appellant's trustee in bankruptcy of the first appellant's rights against the respondent.
The company defaulted on its obligations to the bank, and the bank commenced proceedings against the company and the guarantors ("the guarantee proceedings"). In April 2010, the guarantors and the company retained the respondent to advise and act for them in relation to the guarantee proceedings.
The action came on for trial before Rein J in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The amount of the company's indebtedness to the bank was almost $3.4 million. That debt was secured by various securities given by the company in favour of the bank. The guarantors' liability under the guarantee was limited to $1.5 million. On the opening day of the trial, the bank certified that the total amount owing under the guarantee, including interest and enforcement costs, was $1,856,122.
Later that day, counsel for the guarantors informed the Court that the proceedings had been settled on terms to the effect that judgment would be entered against the guarantors and the company for the full amount of the company's indebtedness to the bank, being $3.4 million, and the bank would not seek to enforce the order for payment of that amount if the guarantors paid to the bank the sum of $1.75 million on or before 19 November 2010, a date approximately five months after the settlement. Those terms were reflected in a consent order for judgment in the amount of $3.4 million made by the Court and the Court's noting of the conditional non‑enforcement agreement between the parties, which was not itself embodied or reflected in an order of the Court.
In the event, the guarantors failed to meet their initial payment obligation. A subsequent attempt to set aside the settlement as an unenforceable penalty was dismissed.
The appellants then issued proceedings in the Supreme Court of New South Wales against the respondent alleging that it was negligent in advising the guarantors to consent to judgment being entered against them in the terms of the consent orders, and in failing to advise them as to the effect of the consent orders ("the negligence proceedings").
The current proceedings
Upon the application of the respondent pursuant to r 28.2 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW), and with the consent of the first appellant, Schmidt J ordered that the question whether the respondent is immune from suit by virtue of the advocate's immunity be determined separately from the other issues in the negligence proceedings. The parties agreed to a document, described as "Proposed Agreed Facts" but treated as a statement of agreed facts by the parties and the courts below, as the basis on which the determination of the question should proceed.
The decision of the primary judge
Before the primary judge (Harrison J), the appellants argued that they did not seek to impugn the consent orders. On the contrary, it was said that the consent orders were relied upon to calculate the amount of their loss, being the difference between the undisputed amount for which the guarantors were liable under the guarantee and the amount of the judgment, in the form of the consent orders, entered against them. The appellants argued that, in these circumstances, the finality of the judgment in the guarantee proceedings was not impugned and, accordingly, their claim was beyond the scope of the immunity.
The primary judge rejected that argument, holding that the appellants did, in truth, seek to assert that "the judgment that was entered against [the guarantors was] not an accurate reflection or measure of their liability to the bank." The primary judge said:
"[T]he plaintiffs in [the negligence proceedings] will be asserting that the judgment in [the guarantee proceedings] is wrong and does not represent [the guarantors'] genuine liability to the bank, whereas the defendants will be asserting that the judgment in [the guarantee proceedings] is correct and by force of that judgment unquestionably establishes [the guarantors'] actual legal liability to the bank."
Nevertheless, his Honour declined to answer the separate question. His Honour was concerned that, without further evidence in relation to the respondent's alleged negligence, he could only form a view about the application of the advocate's immunity on a hypothetical basis.
The decision of the Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal (Bathurst CJ, Meagher and Ward JJA) granted leave to appeal, and held that the primary judge erred in declining to answer the separate question. Their Honours then proceeded to answer that question adversely to the appellants.
The Court of Appeal held that the respondent's advice was within the immunity recognised in Giannarelli as "work done in court or work done out of court which leads to a decision affecting the conduct of the case in court." Bathurst CJ, with whom Meagher and Ward JJA agreed, said:
"In the present case, in my opinion, the work fell within categories of work done out of court affecting the conduct of the case in court. The alleged breach occurred in advising on settlement of the guarantee proceedings …
The advice … led to the case being settled. Put another way it was intimately connected with the conduct of the guarantee proceedings."
The Court of Appeal concluded that the negligence proceedings would necessarily involve a re‑agitation of the issues determined in the guarantee proceedings; and a reconsideration of those issues in order to determine whether the respondent had been negligent would offend the principle of finality. Accordingly, the respondent was immune from suit, and judgment was entered for the respondent in the proceedings.
The appellants appealed to this Court pursuant to a grant of special leave. In this Court, the Law Society of New South Wales ("the Law Society") sought leave to intervene. That leave was granted on the condition that the Law Society pay the costs of the parties occasioned by the intervention.
The agreed facts
As already noted, the hearing before the primary judge proceeded on the basis of a statement of agreed facts. These reflected the allegations of fact, including the negligence of the respondent, set out in the statement of claim. It appears clear that they were "agreed" in the sense that the separate question was to be determined on the assumption, made only for the purposes of that determination, that they were established. If the procedure for determination of a separate question is to be useful, it is necessary for those managing the case at the stage when a question is posed for separate determination to ensure that the facts on which the question is to proceed are "the facts … which the [plaintiff] will seek to establish at trial." If the parties are unable to state facts which, if found, will lead to a judgment in the plaintiff's favour, doubts as to the utility of the determination of the proposed separate question may lead a court to decline an application to determine that question separately.
In the present case, as appeared from the terms of the statement of agreed facts upon which the separate question was posed for resolution, it must be said, as the appellants' Senior Counsel acknowledged in argument in this Court, that "there is a measure of opacity … on the issues of negligence and causation" in the appellants' claim.
The agreed facts stated that the respondent advised the guarantors to sign the consent order containing the terms of settlement "because, if they defaulted in payment of the sum of $1,750,000 by 19 November 2010, it would not make any difference if the judgment in favour of the bank was for $3,399,347.67 or any other sum ('the advice')." The statement of agreed facts then asserted, among other things, that the respondent was negligent:
(i) in giving the advice when the guarantors did not have a liability to the bank for $3,399,347 or anything like that sum;
(ii) in failing to advise the guarantors that if they defaulted in payment of the sum of $1,750,000 by 19 November 2010, there would be a judgment against them for $1,543,225 more than the guaranteed amount of $1,856,122; and
(iii) in failing to advise the guarantors that no legally binding settlement came into existence unless the terms of settlement were signed, and that there were alternatives that they could pursue, including making a counteroffer reflecting the guaranteed sum of $1,856,122 in lieu of $3,399,347 and, failing acceptance of that offer by the bank, resuming the hearing.
There is a tension between the appellants' contention that the respondent was negligent in failing to advise the guarantors that they did not have a liability to the bank for $3,399,347 and the advice which, it is an agreed fact, was given. The statement of agreed facts asserted that the fact of a liability to the bank under the settlement for $3,399,347 was expressly adverted to before the guarantors signed the consent order. The terms of the advice which is alleged to have been given to the guarantors clearly assumed the disparity between the larger liability which would arise in the event of default in payment on 19 November 2010, and the guarantors' liability under the guarantee.
It also appears to be the case that the advice was not advice to the guarantors as to their liability under their guarantee. The consent orders and associated agreement appear, on their face, to have created a new charter of rights between the parties. The liability which the guarantors assumed under that new charter was distinctly not their liability under the guarantee. If the guarantors met their liability under the guarantee within the extended time for which the settlement agreement provided, they would be released from all liability to the bank. In return for extra time to pay their true debt, the guarantors agreed to consent to a judgment for the total indebtedness of the company with a collateral agreement that the judgment would not be enforced should the amount they owed under the guarantee be paid within that extended time.
That having been said, the appeal to this Court is concerned solely with whether the advocate's immunity is, as the respondent contends, a separate and complete answer to the appellants' claim. This Court has not been invited to hold that the weakness of the appellants' claim on the issues of negligence and causation of loss is so clear that there is no utility in deciding the issue presented for determination. The decision of the Court of Appeal, while it stands, precludes any investigation of the strengths and weaknesses of the appellants' claim. The issue as to the effect of the immunity was raised by the respondent, and, the issue having been decided by the Court of Appeal in the respondent's favour as a complete answer to the appellants' claim, should be decided by this Court.
Reconsidering Giannarelli and D'Orta
The appellants submitted that this Court should exercise its undoubted authority to reconsider its previous decisions in Giannarelli and D'Orta. The appellants argued that the decisions in Giannarelli and D'Orta do not rest upon a principle carefully worked out from the authorities. The appellants also argued that the judgments in D'Orta left the scope of the immunity unclear, and that there is such a degree of inconsistency between the immunity and its rationale that this Court should follow other common law systems and abolish the immunity.
The decision whether to reconsider Giannarelli and D'Orta must be made in light of the "grave danger of a want of continuity in the interpretation of the law." The decision must be informed by "a strongly conservative cautionary principle, adopted in the interests of continuity and consistency in the law". To overturn Giannarelli and D'Orta would generate a legitimate sense of injustice in those who have not pursued claims or have compromised or lost cases by reference to the state of the law as settled by these authorities during the years when they have stood as authoritative statements of the law. An alteration of the law of this kind is best left to the legislature.
It must also be said that the questions agitated here as to the rationale for the immunity and its scope were fully argued in Giannarelli and D'Orta. No argument of principle or public policy was advanced by the appellants which had not been addressed in Giannarelli and D'Orta. It is true that, since the decision in Giannarelli, courts in other legal systems have come to a different view as to how competing considerations of principle and policy should be resolved, but those decisions do not reveal an insight into any issue of principle or policy that was not appreciated in Giannarelli and D'Orta.
More importantly, the decision in D'Orta states a rule which is consistent with, and limited by, a rationale which reflects the strong value attached to the certainty and finality of the resolution of disputes by the judicial organ of the State. To explain why that is so, it is necessary to consider more closely the reasons given by the plurality for their decision in D'Orta.
The decision in D'Orta
In D'Orta, the plurality noted that the immunity as stated in Giannarelli was consistent with the decisions of the House of Lords in Rondel v Worsley and Saif Ali v Sydney Mitchell & Co and with the reasons said in those decisions to underpin the immunity. The plurality noted that the House of Lords had reconsidered its earlier decisions in Arthur J S Hall & Co v Simons and observed that this alteration of the common law might be understood in the light of the "then imminent coming into operation of the Human Rights Act 1998 (UK)". The plurality also discussed the state of the law in other common law jurisdictions.
The plurality, in considering the reasons advanced to support the immunity, referred to the "chilling" effect of the threat of legal action upon advocates and the consequent prolongation of trials. The prospect of such a chilling effect was not thought to "provide support in principle for [the] existence" of the immunity. In their Honours' view, in the search for the true rationale of the immunity, "[c]hief attention must be given to the nature of the judicial process and the role that the advocate plays in it." Their Honours referred to the various reasons for the immunity discussed in Giannarelli, and said:
"Of the various factors advanced to justify the immunity, 'the adverse consequences for the administration of justice which would flow from the re‑litigation in collateral proceedings for negligence of issues determined in the principal proceedings' (emphasis added) was held to be determinative."
The plurality in D'Orta accepted that the rationale of the immunity was rooted in the role of the advocate engaged, as an officer of the court, in the exercise by the court of judicial power to quell a controversy, and went on to emphasise the binding nature of judicial decision‑making as an aspect of the government of society. Their Honours said:
"[T]he central concern of the exercise of judicial power is the quelling of controversies. Judicial power is exercised as an element of the government of society and its aims are wider than, and more important than, the concerns of the particular parties to the controversy in question … No doubt the immediate parties to a controversy are very interested in the way in which it is resolved. But the community at large has a vital interest in the final quelling of that controversy. And that is why reference to the 'judicial branch of government' is more than a mere collocation of words designed to instil respect for the judiciary. It reflects a fundamental observation about the way in which this society is governed."
To speak of the exercise of judicial power to quell controversies as an aspect of government is to make it clear that the immunity is not justified by a general concern that disputes should be brought to an end, but by the specific concern that once a controversy has been finally resolved by the exercise of the judicial power of the State, the controversy should not be reopened by a collateral attack which seeks to demonstrate that that judicial determination was wrong. Their Honours said:
"[T]he central justification for the advocate's immunity is the principle that controversies, once resolved, are not to be reopened except in a few narrowly defined circumstances. This is a fundamental and pervading tenet of the judicial system, reflecting the role played by the judicial process in the government of society."
Their Honours explained that, where a final order has been made resolving litigation, a claim that "but for the advocate's conduct, there would have been a different result" is objectionable as a matter of public policy. That is because the consequences of the decision about which the claimant wishes to complain are "consequences flowing from … a lawful result … lawfully reached." The advocate's immunity is, therefore, justified as an aspect of the protection of the public interest in the finality and certainty of judicial decisions by precluding a contention that the decisions were not reached lawfully.
This review of the reasons of the plurality in D'Orta is sufficient to demonstrate that, contrary to the appellants' argument for abolition, there is a clear basis in principle for the existence of the immunity. As to the soundness of the decision in point of authority, the statement of the common law immunity in D'Orta (and Giannarelli) reflects what had been established as the law in the United Kingdom before the change wrought by the decision of the House of Lords in Arthur J S Hall v Simons. The common law of Australia, as expounded in D'Orta and Giannarelli, reflects the priority accorded by this Court to the values of certainty and finality in the administration of justice as it affects the public life of the community.
The foregoing is a sufficient basis to reject the appellants' invitation to reconsider the decisions in D'Orta and Giannarelli. At the same time, however, this review of the reasons of the plurality in D'Orta, and the identification of the public policy on which the immunity is based, serve to show that the scope of the immunity for which D'Orta and Giannarelli stand is confined to conduct of the advocate which contributes to a judicial determination.
Extending the immunity to compromises
It is apparent from the passages set out above from D'Orta that it is the participation of the advocate as an officer of the court in the quelling of controversies by the exercise of judicial power which attracts the immunity. Because that is so, the immunity does not extend to acts or advice of the advocate which do not move litigation towards a determination by a court. In particular, the immunity does not extend to advice that leads to a settlement agreed between the parties. As McHugh J said in D'Orta:
"[I]t is possible to sue a practitioner for the negligent settlement of proceedings or for the negligent loss or abandonment of a cause of action … even though there is a public interest in the finality achieved through the statutes of limitations and the promotion of out-of-court dispute settlement. But where a trial has taken place, as the judgment of Gleeson CJ, Gummow, Hayne and Heydon JJ demonstrates, public confidence in the administration of justice is likely to be impaired by the re‑litigation in a negligence action of issues already judicially determined."
While the plurality in D'Orta did not state explicitly that advice leading to an out of court settlement was outside the scope of the immunity, it is apparent on a fair reading of their Honours' reasons that the rationale of the immunity does not extend to advice which does not move the case in court toward a judicial determination.
The respondent relied upon the decision of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand in Biggar v McLeod to support the contention that the immunity does extend to an agreed settlement of proceedings after a hearing has commenced. In that case, it was said that:
"The giving of advice as to the compromise of proceedings, involving as it does the question of their continuation or termination, is an inherent feature of the conduct of the cause by counsel."
But to say that is not to identify conduct by counsel which affects the judicial determination of the case. This expansive view of the scope of the immunity was expressed by a court in New Zealand before the immunity was abolished in that country by the decision of the Supreme Court of New Zealand in Lai v Chamberlains. It may be observed, with the greatest respect, that by allowing an expansive view of the scope of the immunity so that its operation was wider than was "absolutely necessary in the interests of the administration of justice", the decision in Biggar v McLeod effectively strengthened the case for the abolition of the immunity in New Zealand. To accept that the immunity extends to advice which leads to a settlement of litigation is to decouple the immunity from the protection of the exercise of judicial power against collateral attack. Such an extension undermines the notion of equality before the law by enlarging the circumstances in which lawyers may be unaccountable to their clients.
The appellants argued that the immunity is confined to those decisions which a lawyer may make in the conduct of a case without the specific instructions of the client. In response to that argument, the respondent drew attention to the conclusion by the plurality in D'Orta:
"Because the immunity now in question is rooted in the considerations described earlier, where a legal practitioner (whether acting as advocate, or as solicitor instructing an advocate) gives advice which leads to a decision (here the client's decision to enter a guilty plea at committal) which affects the conduct of a case in court, the practitioner cannot be sued for negligence on that account."
The respondent sought to argue that this statement shows that advice by a lawyer which leads to a decision by a client is within the scope of the immunity. So much may be accepted, to the extent that such advice affects the judicial determination of the proceedings. But negligent advice to plead guilty, as had been allegedly given in D'Orta, when accepted by the client, does affect the determination of the case by the court. The court cannot proceed to conclude its function until a conviction is recorded. In D'Orta, McHugh J explained:
"A decision about a plea of guilty cannot be described other than as intimately connected with the conduct of a criminal cause. It is a decision made preliminary to the hearing of a charge which affects the conduct of the accused's matter before the court. …
The connection of a plea of guilty at committal with the conduct of a criminal matter is intimately connected with the hearing of that matter because the timing of the plea affects the sentence imposed, in particular, whether the plea was entered at the first reasonable opportunity."
In addition, the judicial function is squarely engaged in determining whether to accept a plea of guilty. A court may not accept the plea of guilty unless it is satisfied that it is freely made by the accused.
For present purposes, however, it is not necessary to determine whether the immunity attaches only to the kinds of decision which a lawyer charged with the conduct of a case in court may make without instructions from the client. It is sufficient to conclude that the immunity does not extend to negligent advice which leads to the settlement of a claim in civil proceedings.
Once it is appreciated that the basis of the immunity is the protection of the finality and certainty of judicial determinations, it can be more clearly understood that the "intimate connection" between the advocate's work and "the conduct of the case in court" must be such that the work affects the way the case is to be conducted so as to affect its outcome by judicial decision. The notion of an "intimate connection" between the work the subject of the claim by the disappointed client and the conduct of the case does not encompass any plausible historical connection between the advocate's work and the client's loss; rather, it is concerned only with work by the advocate that bears upon the judge's determination of the case.
An anomaly?
The respondent argued that it would be anomalous to hold that the immunity does not extend to advice which leads to a disadvantageous compromise but does extend to negligent advice not to compromise which leads to a judicial decision less beneficial to the client than a rejected offer of compromise. It was argued that in each case the advice is intimately connected with the proceedings. Further, it was said that to differentiate between these cases may discourage lawyers from giving frank advice in favour of settlement because settlement itself would put them outside the zone of immunity. The Law Society supported this argument, emphasising that public policy favours the settlement of litigation.
The assumption on which the respondent's argument depends, that is, that negligent advice not to settle is "intimately connected" with the ensuing judicial decision of the court so as to attract the immunity, is not sound. The respondent cited no authority in support of this assumption. That is not surprising, given that it is difficult to envisage how advice not to settle a case could ever have any bearing on how the case would thereafter be conducted in court, much less how such advice could shape the judicial determination of the case.
The respondent's assumption depends on the view that a merely historical connection between the advice and the outcome of the case, in the sense that one event precedes another as a necessary condition of its occurrence, is the intimate connection on which Giannarelli and D'Orta insist. As has been said, it is a functional connection between the work of the advocate and the determination of the case by the court which is necessary to engage the immunity. Just as it is true to say that advice to settle is "connected" to the case in the sense that the advice will, if accepted, lead to the end of the case, so it is true to say that advice not to settle a case is "connected" to the case in the sense that the advice will, if accepted, lead to the continuation of the case. But to say either of these things is to speak of a merely historical connection between events. That is to fail to observe the functional nature of the intimate connection required by the public policy which sustains the immunity.
The insufficiency of a mere historical connection between an advocate's work and a litigious event may be illustrated by reference to negligent advice to commence proceedings which are doomed to fail. No one suggests that the immunity is available in such a case. Likewise, advice to cease litigating or to continue litigating does not itself affect the judicial determination of a case.
The respondent argued that where a client has accepted advice not to settle a claim and the matter proceeds to a judgment which is less advantageous for the client than the rejected offer it could be expected that the legal adviser when sued would be disposed to defend himself or herself by arguing that the judgment was wrong and his or her advice was right. That submission is not accepted. It is difficult to conceive of any circumstance in which the correctness of the court's decision would be put in issue. The central question would not be whether the court was right or wrong, but whether the advice was reasonable in all the circumstances known to the adviser at the time the advice was given. Secondly, if the judgment were erroneous, one would expect that this would be demonstrated on appeal; and if the error cannot be demonstrated on appeal from the record of proceedings in court in the earlier case, that would tend to confirm that the negligent advice had nothing to do with the judgment reached by the court.
As to the argument advanced by the Law Society, the immunity is not attracted simply because its existence might encourage lawyers to advise their clients to settle their claims. While it is no doubt true that there is a public interest in the resolution of disputes, the public policy which justifies the immunity is not concerned with the desirability or otherwise of settlements, but with the finality and certainty of judicial decisions. Decisions by the courts, as the judicial organ of the State, are necessary precisely because the parties cannot achieve a compromise of their disputes. The advocate's immunity is grounded in the necessity of ensuring that the certainty and finality of judicial decisions, values at the heart of the rule of law, are not undermined by subsequent collateral attack. The operation of the immunity may incidentally result in lawyers enjoying a degree of privilege in terms of their accountability for the performance of their professional obligations. But this incidental operation is a consequence of, and not the reason for, the immunity. Because this incidental operation of the immunity comes at the expense of equality before the law, the inroad of the immunity upon this important aspect of the rule of law is not to be expanded simply because some social purpose, other than ensuring the certainty and finality of decisions, might arguably be advanced thereby.
Accordingly, it should be accepted that in the present case there was no occasion for the operation of the immunity in relation to advice which led to the settlement of the guarantee proceedings on terms disadvantageous to the guarantors. That said, the question which now must be addressed is whether the circumstance that the settlement was embodied in consent orders was sufficient to attract the operation of the immunity.
The consent order
The respondent argued that a judgment that reflects a compromise reached by consent is no less effective to quell a controversy than if it followed a contested hearing. It was said to be important in this regard to recognise that the parties' antecedent rights merged in the consent judgment.
In Newcrest Mining Ltd v Thornton, French CJ said that although a consent order may, by the rules of the court, be given the same legal effect as an order made after a hearing in the court, "[t]hat does not impute any finding to the court." Here, the primary judge made no finding of fact or law which resolved the controversy between the parties. And the circumstance that the appellants' claim against the respondent relates, not to the resolution of the issues which arose in the guarantee proceedings, but to the terms of a new charter of rights between the parties to those proceedings, also tends to confirm that this is so.
For the respondent, reliance was placed on the decision of this Court in Chamberlain v Deputy Commissioner of Taxation in support of an argument that the negligence proceedings involved an impermissible attack on a judgment of a court because the settlement agreement had merged in the consent order so that the appellants' claim impugned a subsisting decision of a court.
In Chamberlain, the settlement in question was, in terms:
"By Consent … Judgment for the Plaintiff in the sum of $25,557.92 together with costs to be assessed and agreed at $115.00. … The settlement monies to be paid by the Defendant to the Plaintiff forthwith."
The judgment which was entered in that case recited that the terms of settlement had been filed and "adjudged" accordingly that "the Plaintiff recover against the Defendant the sum of $25,557.92 for debt and $115.00 for costs." When the plaintiff discovered that the amount for which judgment had been entered was less than the amount actually due, and brought an action to recover the balance, this Court held that the action was not maintainable on the footing that the cause of action upon which the plaintiff relied had merged in the judgment of the court "thereby destroying its independent existence so long as that judgment stood."
The decision in Chamberlain does not assist the respondent. The present case is not concerned with whether the bank's original cause of action had merged in the judgment of the court, or even with whether the bank's rights under the settlement agreement had merged in the consent order of the court. Whether or not the settlement agreement has a legal existence independent of the consent order, such as for the purposes of its enforcement, has nothing to do with the substantive content of the rights and obligations established by it. The substantive content of those rights and obligations was determined by the parties without any determination by the court. The public policy which sustains the immunity is not offended by recognising the indisputable fact that the terms of the settlement agreement, by reason of which the appellants claim to have been damaged, were not, in any way, the result of the exercise of judicial power.
The respondent also argued that cases involving settlements may involve a collateral challenge to judicial conduct because, in some cases where a case is resolved by settlement, the judge is required to be satisfied that the orders should be made.
It may be acknowledged that there are many cases where, although the parties have agreed upon the terms of the order which a court is asked to make, the making of the order itself requires the resolution of issues by the exercise of judicial power. Examples include where representative proceedings are settled, or where proceedings on behalf of a person under a legal incapacity are to be compromised, or where agreements are made in relation to proceedings under ss 86F, 87 and 87A of the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth). Other examples include the exercise of the judicial discretion to allow an agreement to amend a patent granted under the Patents Act 1900 (Cth), and the compromise of certain debts under ss 477(2A) and 477(2B) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). It is not necessary to consider such cases here.
In the present case, the consent order and associated notation by the Court reflected an agreement of the parties for the payment of money in circumstances where no exercise of judicial power determined the terms of the agreement or gave it effect as resolving the dispute. The consent order may have facilitated the enforcement of the compromise, but it was the agreement of the parties that settled its terms.
Orders
The following orders should be made.