Jeremy Ruskin KC
Victorian Bar

Jeremy Ruskin KC is a member of the Victorian Bar.  After admission to practice, he worked for six years at the Melbourne firm of Galbally & O'Bryan whose principal was Frank Galbally, then one of the pre-eminent criminal advocates in Australia.

Mr Ruskin came to the Victorian Bar in 1979 and took Silk in 1996.  

Mr. Ruskin’s areas of speciality embrace the civil law, in particular torts generally, medical malpractice law, insurance law and media law.  His special interest in the law of tort relates to the issue of duty of care.  He has an expertise in defamation law, suppression and contempt proceedings, having appeared in many trials before judges alone and juries.  He has worked extensively in the appellate level of the Victorian Court of Appeal in a range of civil matters, particularly in relation to personal injury, defamation and judicial review. 

In 2012 he appeared for Google in the Victorian Supreme Court trial which for the first time raised for determination by a jury in a defamation trial, the question whether Google, through its search engine, is a publisher.

Mr Ruskin has appeared on a number of occasions in the High Court of Australia.  He appeared for Victoria Police in the case of Stuart v Kirkland-Veenstra, which determined that police do not owe a duty of care to prevent suicide, and for the hotel interests in CAL No. 14 Pty Ltd t/as “Tandara Motor Inn” & Anor v Scott & Anor which determined that a hotel owes no duty of care to a drunken patron who insists upon the return of his keys so as to drive home (which journey ultimately led to the death of the patron).  Both these cases originated from the courts of Tasmania.

Mr Ruskin appeared in the High Court in the case of Badenach v Calvert, (a case which again originated in Tasmania) successfully arguing that a solicitor has a limited duty of care both to testator and potential beneficiary in relation to advising with respect to a Will, that duty not extending to advice in relation to how to avoid the reach of testator family maintenance legislation.

Mr Ruskin has arbitrated disputes between insurance interests, eg. VWA and Occupiers, and regularly appears for medical and legal practitioners in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.