Login
Man who falsely claimed to be a legal practitioner loses appeal
A Western Australian man who dispensed “free legal advice” via a Facebook page despite not ever being registered as an Australian legal practitioner has lost his appeal to have his conviction and sentence overturned.
Naomi Neilson
In April 2020, Ryan Michael Upton was found guilty of having represented that he was entitled to engage in legal practice despite not being a practitioner. In the former proceedings and in the recent appeal in the Western Australian Supreme Court, Mr Upton represented himself to have his conviction and sentence overturned.
“The Facebook page did not purport to limit the scope or importance of the legal questions/matters on which answers would be given,” the prosecution set out.
“By its terms and manner of presentation cloaked with legal imagery, it constituted an unconditioned representation to members of the public that answers would be given to their legal questions and thereby constituted an implied representation by Mr Upton that he had an entitlement to engage in such activity.”
The court noted that as he was unrepresented during the trials, the hearing suffered from considerable repetition, “including matters that were not relevant to the issues”. He also repeatedly made “serious, but misguided” allegations against the Legal Practice Board, its witnesses and others. Judged against that background, the court noted that the trial judge “was courteous and showed considerable patience”.
In his appeal, Mr Upton alleged that the magistrate failed to apply the standards of proof beyond reasonable doubt, erred in admitting the Facebook documents into evidence and had erred in failing to take into account the prosecutor’s failure to call original complainant witness and the prosecutor’s “outrageous lies” about a witness.
Among other things, he also alleged that the magistrate had erred in failing to take into account the prosecutor’s failure to call on any of the Facebook users.
“The prosecution’s case was that the representations were made to the public. The prosecution did not have to prove the identity of any of the people who accessed the Facebook page. The prosecution only needed to prove that the Facebook page was accessible to the public,” the Western Australian Supreme Court wrote in judgement.
No grounds of appeal were found to have a reasonable prospect of success.
The entire judgement can be read on AustLII: Upton v Legal Practice Board of WA [2021] WASC 143 (11 May 2021).
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
You can email Naomi at:
