Country Lawyer Reaps Award From Farm Battle

The Age

Thursday May 14, 1998

CAROLINE MILBURN

A country lawyer helping two families to fight a bank to keep their Mallee farm has received an award for doing free legal work.

The solicitor, Mr Sergio Guerra, helped the Quick family battle the ANZ bank, which four years ago tried to evict them from their wheat and sheep farm at Warracknabeal.

The Quicks' legal wrangle is considered to be a test case for hundreds of farmers who borrowed from the bank in the 1980s, using a loan involving Swiss francs. The Quicks claimed the bank did not advise them properly about the costs of converting the money into Australian dollars. The bank disputed the claim, the loans blew out, and court action began.

Last night Mr Guerra, who runs a one-man legal practice in Donald, won the regional section of the Pro Bono awards for lawyers. The awards were presented at Government House by the Governor, Sir James Gobbo, the Attorney-General, Mrs Jan Wade, and the Chief Justice of Victoria, Justice John Harber Phillips.

The biennial awards, initiated by the Public Interest Law Clearing House, are given to lawyers who do free or heavily discounted work for the benefit of the wider community.

Mrs Cheryl Quick said her family and her in-laws, Wes and Judy Quick, were astonished by Mr Guerra's tenacity. He spent hundreds of hours working on the case and made countless trips to Melbourne to lodge documents and appear in court.

"He's very caring, above and beyond the call of duty," Mrs Quick said. "His determination to make justice available to little people helped us to survive the past four years." The Quicks lost their case against the bank in the Supreme Court last year but are appealing against the decision.

Other award winners included the barristers Mr Bryan Keon-Cohen, QC, Mr Jack Rush, QC, and a team of lawyers from Holding Redlich who have donated their skills to a landmark personal injury case to be heard in the High Court. The case involves 700 Aborigines who have lodged a compensation claim against the Commonwealth for physical and psychological damage suffered when they were taken from their parents in outback Australia and placed in institutions until the 1960s.

Freehill, Hollingdale and Page also won an award for donating legal expertise to welfare organisations.

© 1998 The Age

Back to News Index | Back to Home