It seems that news of the closure of the Federal Magistrates Court might be premature. From recent media reports, some federal magistrates are unhappy about plans to integrate their court into the Family and Federal Courts. Given their tenured positions, it would appear that if they refuse to join another court it would be constitutionally …
Month: May 2009
Diversion, disclosure and discretion
The Magistrates' Court Act 1989 s 128A provides a statutory power for summary courts to adjourn criminal charges for a diversion hearing.128A. Adjournment to undertake diversion program(1) This section does not apply to-(a) an offence punishable by a minimum or fixed sentence or penalty, including cancellation or suspension of a licence or permit to drive …
County Court appeals
An accused has an automatic right of appeal to the County Court under s 83 of the Magistrates' Court Act 1989 on sentence, or on both conviction and sentence. This second sort of appeal, where the whole case is heard again, is called a hearing de novo, Latin for as new.These appeals are heard by …
Human rights, fair hearing and vexatious litigants
Edit: Kay had a further (unsuccessful) attempt to overturn his status as a vexatious litigant in Kay v Attorney-General for the State of Victoria (No 2) [2010] VSCA 27.Last month Dr Manhattan discussed vexatious litigants and Stephen Warne's post on the topic.Today, the Human Rights Law Resource Centre also posted about Kay v Attorney-General & …
Continue reading Human rights, fair hearing and vexatious litigants
Summary courts getting busy!
Dr Manhattan's post on wilful and obscene exposure sent me looking at the stats for Victorian summary court charge rates.It's a while since I looked at them in any great detail.Intriguingly, the most up-to-date statistics tend to be in those produced by the Productivity Commission in it's annual reports on Report on Government Services!Based on …