State loses Rayney work case
The State has lost a bid to strike out Lloyd Rayney's claim that allegedly defamatory police comments robbed the barrister of 2300 hours of work each year since 2008.
Mr Rayney has pleaded as part of his potential multi-million-dollar lawsuit that he suffered special damages after police comments caused him to miss out on income from 50 hours a week for 46 weeks a year.
Counsel for the State of WA, which is fighting Mr Rayney's defamation action, argued today in a strike-out application that the special damages claim was inconsistent with the time the barrister later devoted preparing for his own murder trial and an appeal.
In addition, the State raised that Mr Rayney had also given an undertaking to the Legal Practice Board some time after the lawsuit was lodged not to practise as a barrister.
The State argued that particular part of Mr Rayney's statement of claim should be thrown out because it was effectively impossible.
The State also suggested Mr Rayney would now know exactly how much time he had spent on the murder case and appeal and how it had impacted on his earning potential during that period.
Mr Rayney lodged his lawsuit against the State in 2008 over comments police made labelling him the prime and only suspect in his estranged wife's disappearance. Corryn Rayney was found buried in a Kings Park grave within weeks of her disappearance in 2007.
Mr Rayney was charged in 2010, years after the police comments, and found not guilty after a trial in 2012. Prosecutors then lost an appeal.
This afternoon, Justice James Edelman dismissed the State's strike out application.
He noted that evidence was not provided on the issue, for example regarding the possibility that Mr Rayney had worked extra hours on the weekend while preparing for trial, or late into the evening.
The judge said such matters could be dealt with in cross examination in a trial.
