The Macrossan Lecture Series - past lectures

Presented on Wednesday 20 March, 2024, at the Banco Court, Supreme and District Courts, Brisbane.

There are two serious problems with our civil justice system. Both involve cost.

The first is that the vast majority of actions which are properly amenable to resolution before a judgment by a court tend to be resolved only at trial by which time huge and unnecessary costs have already been incurred by all parties.

And the second is that a trial under that system is beyond the financial capacity of most of those who would use it. And consequently they have to drop out.

The lecture discusses both of these problems and suggests reasons for them and ways in which they can be eliminated or at least substantially ameliorated. In both cases these involve radical reform: the first involving much greater judicial control over the pretrial process; and the second requiring, at least for most litigants, a simpler and cheaper system of trial.

About this year's presenter

The Honourable Geoffrey Lance Davies AO was appointed to the Bench of the newly established Court of Appeal of Queensland on 16 December 1991. Before this, however, he was admitted to the Bar in 1962. His Honour took silk in 1976 and from 1986, he practised exclusively in appellate jurisdictions. He appeared in many High Court of Australia and Privy Council matters of constitutional and commercial importance. He was President of the Australian Bar Association from 1987 to 1988, President of the Queensland Bar Association from 1987 to 1989, and at the time of his appointment to the Court of Appeal, a Vice-President of the Law Council of Australia. From 1989 he was the Solicitor-General for the State of Queensland, the first member of the private Bar to hold that position. At the same time, he retained his private practice. From 1994 to 1996, he was Chairman of the Litigation Reform Commission which was charged with reforming both civil and criminal procedure in Queensland. 

On 26 January 2003, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for service to the judiciary and to the legal profession, particularly in the area of reform. He has an honorary doctorate from the Queensland University of Technology for services to the law, law reform and legal education. He is also an honorary life member of the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration for services to law reform and legal education. He was a member of the Council of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons from 2005 to 2010, and was appointed an Honorary Fellow in 2010. He retired from the Court of Appeal in 2005 and was appointed as Commissioner of the Queensland Public Hospitals Commission of Inquiry in the same year. From 2007 to 2014, he was a Judge of the Court of Appeal of Brunei Darussalam. He is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Law at The University of Queensland.