Lauren Gamble

Lauren Gamble recently appeared in an application seeking dispensation from the pleading requirements under the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld) on the basis of a claim for privilege against self-incrimination.

The precis of the decision of Freeburn J in Zuce Tech Pty Ltd v Ebert [2025] QSC 109, prepared by the Editors of the Queensland Law Reporter, is as follows: “A particularly interesting issue arose in this application: whether the defendant ought be required to plead to certain paragraphs of the statement of claim or whether that would infringe his claim for privilege against self-incrimination in circumstances where there was a real risk of potential future criminal proceedings being brought against him. Justice Freeburn accepted that since the allegations in this civil proceeding were directly relevant to potential future criminal proceedings the defendant was entitled to dispensation in relation to specified paragraphs of the pleadings.”