JOHN COOMBS QC

Somewhere between a legal textbook, selected memoirs and an autobiography. It’s the story of John Coombs’ career as a barrister, memories of his famous father HC ‘Nugget’ Coombs, and the serious, sometimes poignant, and occasionally hilarious cases that arrive in our courts.
The title of the book presents the dilemma faced so frequently by lawyers. The defendant may at first appear to be clearly guilty, but they could just as well be totally innocent. And the examples he gives, are timely reminders to keep an open mind.
His paper on the findings of the Royal Commission into the effects of the de-foliant Agent Orange is textbook stuff, extracting the truth from the hyperbole of a painful episode in Australian military history. Elsewhere there are delightful anecdotes about one-legged plaintiffs, a major damages claim settled on the outcome of a horse race, and occasions when one wonders whether the term ‘being called to the bar’ should take the simplest meaning. This is a book of memories of 40 years as a barrister and QC, told in a charming and unaffected way. It is a delightful read.

167 pages, mono, hardback with jacket ISBN 0 949284 79 3

ISBN: 0 949284 79 3
167 pp Hardback with jacket

210mm x 145mm
Mono

Drawings by Annette Wallis
$35 inc GST