Crime and punishment

Rapke wrap-up ... Will Silbert get a Santa suit? ... Murdoch hacks battering down Simon Overland's door ... (Talk about the breaking squad) ... Lawyers at unhappily fused DLA Piper told to hike their charge out rates ... Peach Melba channels Leo Tolstoy 

Well ... well, dear readers, never say you didn't read it here first (see here and here), or in fact, before it actually happened.

Pursuant to Peach's predictions, Rapke is gone.

This is a full seven weeks after Frank Vincent QC began his review of the troubled Office of Public Prosecutions at the request of the Victorian AG, Robert Clark.

In his resignation letter Rapke was quick to note that Vincent apparently did not find "any conscious wrongdoing, illegality or impropriety", but he does concede that the review found he made an "error of judgment".
 
This is a somewhat selective summary of Vincent's report. Sadly, it looks to be the most comprehensive version Victorians can realistically expect.

The full version remains in the hot little hands of the AG. At this stage, our hopes for having our curiosity satisfied will have to rest with Julian Assange.
 
Clark insists that Rapke wasn't pushed, but it does suggest a rather legalistic approach to the distinction between a lean and a push.

We're yet to be told who will take up the mantle, but the AG is clearly using the opportunity to engage in a "major shake up" of the OPP.

Victorians may be looking at another election in four years still with a heavy focus on Laura Norder.

One man at the centre of all this, Rapke's nemesis, deputy DPP Gavin Silbert SC, has insisted he doesn't want the top job. Or is he just playing hard to get? He has more fans among the legal profession than Gaga does in Prahran.

I wonder who would be interested in taking on such a job with a 2-IC who was more mutinous than Captain Jack Sparrow.

Rumour has it that Silbert is being fitted out for a Santa suit - a sartorial requirement on the bench in Victoria. He has rejected it before, but it may be second time lucky now some unfinished business has been dealt with.
 
At lease Rapke's resignation will allow him to spend more time with his family ... or pursue new opportunities. Peach wouldn't dare to speculate further.
 
Murdoch press has its fingerprints all over police intrigue

Overland, under reviewChief copper Simon Overland is under review after ordering his departing deputy Sir Ken Jones to leave his job immediately.

Sir Ken had announced his resignation and had planned to finish up in August after only a two year stint with the boys in blue.

For some mysterious reason Overland turfed him early, but won't say why Sir Ken might be facing a return to Sun Hill.
 
The Herald Sun, described by one prominent Melbourne lawyer as the official publication of the Victorian Police Association, is doing its best to edge out our Simon.

The Oz, similarly described as the official publication of the AFP, also has joined the campaign. In an endeavour to heap it on poor Simon, the Police Association even had the gall to say a kind word or two about Simon's predecessor - that well known late night diner and auto-biographer, Christine Nixon.

That was a touch unexpected.
 
It's difficult to believe that the current Victorian government will lift much more than a little finger to back Simon (if that).

The Victorian ombudsman has been investigating allegations that police statistics on crime rates were fudged in the lead-up to last year's state election – and that Simon's office went along with the plan.

The Oz is is raking over every corner of this story. The paper failed to nail the commissioner last year in one of its over-egged campaigns, now it's at it again.

Today (May 26), a report from the Office of Police Integrity was tabled in parliament. Among the findings were that Vic Police is "unable to produce accurate crime statistics".

This is partly due to flaws in the design of the computer application used to enter and store information, as well as the bungles that arise when plod manually fills out endless forms that have to be faxed to a central data entry bureau.

Again, The Oz got out the mixmaster, describing it as "a further setback for the chief commissioner".

Unhappy families

DLA Philips Fox merged with Piper Alderman on May 1 to become DLA Piper.

However, trouble has been brewing in this legal equivalent of the Brady Bunch. From the early stages, the merger faced a plague of rats - jumping from the ship, with 10 partners leaving from Brisbane, six from Canberra and a number busting out to start on their own.
 
Even after the merger the DLAPF/PA family remains uniquely unhappy, as Tolstoy might say, because fee earners are being asked to up their charge out rates.

Raising the fees to international levels has caused quite a bit of heartbreak among practitioners, who do not believe they will be able to retain their government and not-for-profit clients. And pro bono looks like becoming increasingly pro nono.
 
Public health law was a major strength of the old firm, but health is fee sensitive. The firm might have some trouble holding on to both lawyers and clients in this area.

Otherwise, he who is paid by the piper will have to accept how much they charge their clients.