Offences under s 49(1)(f) of the Road Safety Act 1986 are absolute liability offences. The assertion of a claim of honest and reasonable mistake has no effect against such a charge: Skase v Holmes (Unreported, Supreme Court of Victoria, 11 October 1995, Vincent J). In that case, Vincent J aligned drink-driving with the offences of …
Continue reading Drinking & driving – no honest and reasonable mistake
Google announced on its homeblog last week that it's getting into the law business in a big way.Is this good news? We don't know. In the short-term, Google moving into the neighbourhood will probably free up access to US law for lawyers and non-lawyers alike, as happened in other countries thanks to free access movement …
At the Chancellor's Lecture last week, former Court of Appeal judge Charles Stephen QC made reference to improper questioning in cross-examination. He made specific mention of Heydon J's comments in Libke v R (2007) 230 CLR 559. I read the case for the first time this week.The Evidence Act 1958 has allowed a broad discretion …
The Spring edition of the Victorian Bar News is now available online.It came out over a month ago, and I may not have noticed it being posted on the Bar's homesite for a few weeks. I had a bleat here about there being no electronic version soon after it was printed.The editors explain,The first thing …
We mentioned a while back about transitional legislation for the Evidence Act 2008 and Criminal Procedure Act 2009, in our posts Transitional legislation arrives Part 1 and Part 2.Parliament passed those Bills — which also substantially amend the principal Acts — last week on Friday 12 November. All that remains is for Royal Assent. The amending …