The value of a penalty unit increases today, 1 July 2009.The value of a penalty unit for the coming financial year will be $116.82. This was published in Victoria Government Gazette S132 on 15 May 2009.The value of a fee unit will also increase, to $11.69.
Month: June 2009
Caution under the new Evidence Act
A familiar debate amongst summary-jurisdiction-practitioners is if an accused is entitled to a caution against self-incrimination before being questioned about a summary offence. While there's always been a judicial discretion to exclude evidence unfairly obtained, there's only an actual statutory requirement for the police to give a caution for a summary offence in very limited …
Uren v Neal: refusing a breath test
Last Friday the Supreme Court delivered yet another judgment on drink-driving charges in Uren v Neale [2009] VSC 267.The factsThe police evidence was they saw Mr Uren pull in at a petrol station early in 3 May 2007, get out of his car, and stagger. Acting Sergeant Neal thought he might be drunk, conducted a …
Evidence eliminator
The new Evidence Act 2008 introduces new statutory tests for the admissibility of evidence in Victoria.Section 138 is similar — though not the same as — the test for unlawfully or improperly obtained evidence in Bunning v Cross (1987) 141 CLR 54. Like the High Court's decision in that case, the new provision requires the …
Indictable offences in Victoria
The long-awaited 5th edition of Indictable Offences in Victoria is about to be published, authored once again by Ian Freckelton.Ian is, to put it mildly, prolific and prodigious with the amount of written work he produces, but the new edition of this book has been a bit longer than was originally anticipated. (It was originally …