Barrister and lecturer Andrew Palmer was commissioned to prepare a number of summaries of the Evidence Act 2008 for the Department of Justice and Judicial College.

While the one page summaries will be useful to refer to once the new rules are up and running, an overview of all the changes is provided in the Ready Reckoner. It provides a section-by-section rundown of new provisions, and a potted summary of how they differ from the existing law. In its online form, it has numerous links to source material at AustLII and elsewhere.

Of course, a 37-page spreadsheet is never going to do justice to all of the nuances of the new legislation. But if you’re just turning your mind to the changes, it’s a sensible place to start.