This time though Sydney solicitor Farshad Amirbeaggi is the one enmeshed, thanks to a professional negligence action launched by an aggrieved developer.
The main problem is that whilst the $2.7 million claim was launched in February this year, the plaintiff has since provided little in the way of propulsion.
Six deadlines have passed without the promised or ordered amended statement of claim materialising. The plaintiff - who has the misfortune to be one of the parties mired in the Joe & Joe Developments imbroglio - complains he has insufficient funds to advance the action. Amirbeaggi, who is vexed by the claim and its attendant publicity, wants the proceedings dismissed.
In a judgment published on Tuesday Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison quoted Amirbeaggi's complaint about the "anxiety, distraction and disruption" in ruling that while it would not be appropriate to dismiss the claim, the plaintiffs should pay Amirbeaggi's costs, which the judge observed were not at this stage onerous. He also expressed a degree of skepticism about the plaintiff's avowed poverty as the reason for the action's sluggish progress.
"There can be no doubt that the plaintiffs have disregarded orders with which they would have been expected to comply," Justice Harrison said.
"I am less certain that their failure to do so is the result of financial considerations that have disrupted their ability to secure appropriate legal assistance. The evidence about that is unsatisfactory as the defendants have emphasised," Justice Harrison said.