Frank Deliu has unsuccessfully applied to the High Court for a judicial review. Photo / Janna Dixon
Frank Deliu has unsuccessfully applied to the High Court for a judicial review. Photo / Janna Dixon
A lawyer who accused a judge of being a racist and another of corruption was almost thwarted from practising law in Florida because he was temporarily banned from practising in New Zealand - now he just wants “justice”.
In a bid to have his suspension wiped from his record, FranciscDeliu, who goes by the name Frank Deliu, lodged an application with the High Court for a judicial review of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal’s earlier decision.
But in a ruling released this week, Justice Mary Peters rejected the application and ruled Deliu was seeking to “misuse or abuse the process of the court”.
Today, Deliu told the Herald the ruling was not theend of the road for him and he intended to launch an appeal.
Deliu was suspended from practising law for 15 months and ordered to pay costs of $260,000 in 2016 after the Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal found him guilty on a raft of misconduct charges.
The tribunal found Deliu had made a series of baseless allegations about Justice Rhys Harrison.
“He accused the judge variously of breaching his judicial oath, being out of control, repeatedly abusing his powers, being partial, discriminatory, acting with mala fides, maliciously, spitefully and of being racist,” the tribunal’s earlier decision said.
But Deliu said he intended to appeal the High Court's ruling. Photo / Janna Dixon.
The tribunal said Deliu had also made unfounded accusations against Justice Anthony Randerson which included that he had “attempted to obstruct the course of justice, used his judicial office in gross abuse of taxpayer money for an improper motive, breached his judicial oath, and of judicial corruption.”
However, not content with that ruling, Deliu in 2017 turned to the High Court where he labelled the tribunal a “kangaroo court” and applied for a judicial review of its decision.
He sought to have the ruling quashed and an order to prevent the tribunal from rehearing the charges against him. But the High Court dismissed the appeal.
Following his relocation to the United States, Deliu in 2021 made another application to the High Court for a judicial review.
He sought the review because he wished to practice law in Florida but the bar association in the US state would not admit anyone who has been suspended from legal practice at any point in their career.
Deliu advanced the application on two grounds including that one of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal members had recused herself from the proceedings before issuing a minute about his case.
The other ground was that most of the remaining members were not officially appointed, Deliu claimed, adding that meant their decision was not legally binding.
After hearing the application, Justice Peters said in her recent decision that Deliu should have raised these issues in 2016 when he was before the tribunal.
She dismissed Deliu’s claim that the Law Society would have opposed his application for access to the relevant documents.
“I am satisfied that this is a case in which the plaintiff could and ought to have pursued the matters on which he now relies in the 2016 proceedings.”
Frank Deliu and his McLaren supercar outside his North Shore house in June 2017. Photo / Supplied
The judge found the tribunal members had been appointed legally thus their decision to suspend him was also legal.
“All of these matters lead me to conclude that it is not in the interests of justice that this matter proceed, and that the plaintiff is seeking to misuse or abuse the process of the Court,” she said, dismissing the application for judicial review.
The next move
Deliu intends to appeal Justice Peter’s decision.
He began the process to have his suspension wiped so he could be admitted to the bar in Florida but had since gained an exemption from its bar association. He was currently undergoing character checks, he told the Herald.
An appeal against the ruling was now a matter of justice, he said.
“If lawyers can’t get justice for themselves why would any client trust them to seek justice for them?”
Deliu made headlines around the world last year when he launched legal proceedings against his 12-year-old son’s middle school in Florida for displaying LGBTQ+ pride flags in the classroom.
His case was struck out by the court but he told the Herald he intended to also appeal that ruling.
Also last year, he successfully overturned a High Court decision in New Zealand after he was fined for having his wife and son in the same front passenger seat of his McLaren sports car in Auckland.
