Lawyer’s defamation action against AFL club gets another chance

The discontinued defamation proceedings against a president of a Melbourne-based AFL club and three directors have been revived by a workplace relations lawyer, but only under certain conditions.

Glen Robert Bartlett, managing director of the Bartlett Workplace Group and former president of the Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, was given a second chance to bring proceedings against his successor, Kate Roffey, despite a court finding it was an abuse of process.

The proceedings related to allegedly defamatory comments made or published by Roffey and directors David Rennick, Steven Morris and David Robb in 2021 and 2022, after Bartlett resigned.

Bartlett originally brought the proceedings to the Supreme Court of Western Australia but discontinued them when Justice Marcus Solomon agreed with the defendants to transfer them to Victoria.

Bartlett fought against the transfer for “health-related issues”.

The proceedings now filed in the Federal Court concern the same allegations advanced in the WA Supreme Court.

Justice Craig Colvin said while Bartlett demonstrated leave should be granted to allow the proceedings to be revived in the Federal Court, he also found the application still amounted to an abuse of process.

“Only when the outcome was adverse to his position did he seek to change tack,” Justice Colvin said.

“In a federal system where there is substantial concurrent jurisdiction, it brings the administration of justice within such a system into disrepute if a party is able to switch from one court to another simply because the party did not like the outcome.”

Justice Colvin said it would “oppress the other party unjustifiably” because the respondents had already racked up significant costs.

However, to not allow Bartlett to move forward with the defamation action in the Federal Court would mean he would be “left without recourse for the claims he seeks to advance”.

Bartlett was allowed to proceed, but the proceedings were transferred to the Victoria registry.

Justice Colvin also ordered Bartlett to discharge his liability to costs in the Supreme Court matter.