The Victorian Supreme Court in Australia has made it known that it does not approve of the in-chamber consultations practiced in the Philippines.

In a decision involving Philippine and Australian litigants, the Australian high court characterized such judicial practice as “highly inappropriate in Australia,” after the Philippine counsel of an Australian commercial client admitted to the Australian justices as having conducted “private discussion …with the judge in chambers” in a hotly contested case before Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Oscar Pimentel.

Ironically, the opposing counsels from Romulo Mabanta and Sycip Salazar law firms went on record accusing each other of having conducted such secret meetings with Pimentel.