‘Obsessive’ legal student emailed staff every 15 minutes out of ‘passion for the law’

November 13, 2026 — 5:38pm

A Deakin law student barred from contacting staff after emailing them every 15 minutes and told not to make disparaging remarks on a school discussion board claims he was simply contributing to course material.

Juris Doctor student Samuel Eaton must now pay the university’s legal fees after he lost a Supreme Court battle to overturn a school directive limiting his access to students and staff following repeated complaints about his behaviour.

This included persistently questioning course content and making disparaging remarks about the law school and its faculty on the school’s online forum and via email, according to an affidavit from Deakin University’s pro vice-chancellor (students).

“It was the volume of the concerns and issues being raised by [Eaton] and the tone of his communications, which were imposing a significant burden on Deakin Law School staff,” she wrote in the document.

In a detailed five-page statement provided to The Age, Eaton said he wanted to improve the course.

“Educational quality was my focus, and it was never personal: whether the materials were accurate and current, who prepared them, and who marked our work,” he said.

The aspiring PhD candidate said his concern was about the “whole system” and he raised it through the university’s complaints process.

The staff responded to complaints he raised but his emails “were continuing, with a frequency and repetition that was perceived as obsessive in nature”, according to Hanna’s affidavit.

His behaviour towards students was also considered “disruptive, persistent and to be impacting negatively” on their experience of lectures and the program, according to the document.

Eaton was issued with a communications plan in July 2025 because of the frequency of his complaints.

This was followed with a behavioural reminder two months later. He failed to follow both, court documents claim.

“At one stage in October [2025] … [Eaton] was sending a high volume and rate of emails, for example an email every 15 or 30 minutes, to various staff and services within the University.”

But Eaton told The Age he sent 55 emails over 19 days in October to the university.

“On a few days, I sent several in a short time, mostly to different people and offices about different matters. That is nothing like a sustained rate of one every 15 or 30 minutes.”

That same month at a university event, staff had to intervene when Eaton was asking “inappropriate questions” of Victorian Legal Admissions Board representatives about teaching staff qualifications.

Eaton faced a student misconduct hearing and was cleared after the university admitted it had mischaracterised the recipient of one of his emails.

In his statement, he reiterated there was no finding of misconduct against him and despite this, the direction was issued.

“The effect [of the direction] was to stop me engaging with the course content and raising its defects, and in the end it did. I stopped attending seminars and stopped writing about the law on the discussion boards. For me, the value of that education became pain and suffering rather than learning.”

In his misconduct hearing he said his persistence and language came from a place of “care and passion for the law”, but he accepted what it meant and how it was experienced “may not have aligned”.

Hanna issued the directive in January, which restricted how he communicated with the law school’s staff and posted on the online legal studies forum, and banned him from contacting a fellow student.

Instead, Eaton’s messages went to a centralised email address, which disseminated them to relevant staff, including if he wanted to arrange an in-person meeting on campus.

He was also told to limit his contributions to the online forum to directly relate to unit teaching materials, and had to be polite and courteous and not threatening, harassing or intimidating.

The directive said commenting on the qualifications of university staff or teaching style on the board was not appropriate.

But in one document seen by The Age he acknowledged one of his online forum posts “went too far” when he said a professional program “demands instruction by seasoned barristers or academically distinguished peers, not underprepared lecturers recycling obsolete materials”.

At a hearing in the Supreme Court, Eaton, who represented himself and remains a Deakin student, argued the directive was unlawful.

Eaton argued he was denied procedural fairness because he wasn’t provided an opportunity to respond to the direction or notified about it.

“[It] is unlawful and unreasonable because I’m contributing efficiently to the course material,” he told the court.

“If I read something, and I and I have something to say about it, that discussion board is provided for me to do that,” he said.

He said the amount of time and energy he spent on taking the university to court had a “tortuous impact” on him.

Associate Justice Peter Fary dismissed the challenge a day before the direction was due to expire on October 30, and this month ordered Eaton to pay the university’s legal fees. Those costs are yet to be determined.

“I am not satisfied that the direction, as opposed to the conduct that caused it to be made, has ‘the practical effect of blackening’ the plaintiff’s reputation,” Fary said.

Eaton argued he shouldn’t pay the legal fees because the case was in the public interest.

A Deakin University spokesperson said it welcomed the decision to dismiss Eaton’s case.

“It is important all students comply with the Student Code of Conduct, including the obligation to work cooperatively and collaboratively with other students, staff and associates, and communicate with courtesy and consideration in person and online.”

“We support the reasonable behavioural management actions of our staff, taken in accordance with University policy, which were upheld in this decision.”

Eaton told The Age he was considering his options following the ruling and was consulting barristers.

He plans to sit the Bar exam in 2027 and continue with his studies.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.

Caroline Schelle is an education reporter, and joined The Age in 2022. She previously covered courts at AAP.Connect via X or email.

From our partners