Straw Stalls to Witness Boxes

ADVERTORIAL

GEORGE Fraser grew up in Scone spending much of his youth around horse stables following his dad Nairn Fraser, a well-known equine veterinarian, but George chose a career as a solicitor where he now spends more time around a witness box.

George spent his early career in the New England before going to Sydney to practice as a barrister practicing criminal law, but returned to Scone in 2004 to have a family and establish an equine agistment business with his wife Felicity.

“I think Scone is just a wonderful place to live; I grew up here, I went away for a while and came back; I just walked up the main street today to go and have lunch and half a dozen people stuck their hand out to say g’day and you just don’t get that in Sydney and there is just a great sense of community and it’s a lovely place to raise children,” said Mr Fraser.

George Fraser: From Scone court to the Supreme court George enjoys the challenges of litigation and criminal law.George has represented people in the local court through to the supreme court.

George has represented people in the local court through to the supreme court.

When he heard Joplin Lawyers were opening an office in Scone he was keen to join the team to practice litigation in his home town and be part of a firm with a cause.

“Joplin was keen to open up in the Upper Hunter and I was very happy to put my hand up to be part of that because I thought it would be nice to practice in Scone and for a long time Scone hasn’t had solicitors that practice litigation or specialise in any kind of court work or criminal work and if you needed a criminal lawyer you needed to go further afield; it’s a service I think is needed and there are people here we can help,” he said.

“Court work is where the rubber hits the road in the sense that people are perhaps facing a period of imprisonment, but any sort of court appearance is very daunting for most people and I enjoy helping people through that process,” he said.

“Most people aren’t in court because they wanted to do something illegal, it’s because they are in a position where they are forced to do something illegal because of their circumstances, or because they’ve suffered some sort of ghastly trauma in the past which makes them not function as well as other people in the community.

“When you see people who have gone undiagnosed for 20 or 30 years you delve a bit more deeply into problems and you source the appropriate help for them and you can really make a positive impact on their lives.

“I like the work Joplin does, I like the approach they have to the community, her passion about addressing domestic violence and that as a lawyer and a firm they have an ethic to help people, it’s not a cynical money making exercise, it’s there to help people far more than perhaps other firms I’ve been in,” said George.

Domestic violence has become more prevalent in the court system since George has been practicing with more victims both men and women coming forward.

Joplin has a passion for reform programs for perpetrators with the philosophy being that if you can reform one perpetrator you can save a lifetime of their various partners from violence.

“It’s something you don’t see so much of through the New South Wales court system but there are programs overseas, that Joplin goes over to study, where they refer the perpetrators into treatment programs to try and address whatever the underlying problem is,” he said.

“It would be lovely to see diversionary programs in New South Wales and I think we will eventually catch up at some stage, but we are not quite there yet,” he said.

While the results of cases are important George said caring for the clients throughout the process is also important, something that attracted him to the firm.

“A lot of Joplin’s clients are the female partners who may well have found themselves ejected from the home, no money, no great prospects of support and to have the grief of a family law situation thrust upon you while worrying about where your kids are going to go to school and how you are going to feed them, it’s a very difficult position and Joplin is very good at handling those difficult circumstances,” he said.

“I got interested in mediation and became a qualified mediator and I am able to mediate in matters to assist people resolve matters in many areas of law including equine, contract and family law disputes,” he said.

While George is glad to base his career in Scone he still travels throughout the state to represent clients, but enjoys that he has come full circle to the place where he was born and breed and he has not altogether strayed far from the straw boxes, a background which has naturally leant itself to the specialised area of equine law.

“I’m always very grateful to dad because usually if there’s some legal problem with a horse I’m the bloke who ends up with it and it’s always very helpful to be able to ring dad to explain the medical side of it to me,” he said.

“I grew up in the thoroughbred industry and as a small child I recall spending time in straw boxes at the William Inglis and Son sales at Randwick, I’ve been going to the horse sales since time immemorial, I’ve grown up in the industry and it is great to know the history to a lot of matters,” George Fraser said.