Edit: Contempt proceedings in Victorian courts are (fortunately) rare. One past instance is Anissa Pty Ltd v Parsons [1999] VSC 430. Cummins J's decision is interesting for the story it tells and the law it applies. A magistrate has imposed one month's imprisonment for contempt of court to an accused who blew and popped a …
Month: June 2010
Winch v The Queen [2010] VSCA 151: Hitting people with glasses
Edit: The RCSI tables - which I previously said were missing from the JCV's website - have now been added. I can't link to them directly but they are at 25.9.2.1 of the Sentencing Manual.The Court of Appeal decided Winch v The Queen [2010] VSCA 141 this week. At issue was the appropriate penalty for …
Continue reading Winch v The Queen [2010] VSCA 151: Hitting people with glasses
When is lay opinion 'necessary'?
Edit: I have been pointed to the decision of Connex Group Australia v Butt [2004] NSW 379 on this point. White J delivers a comprehensive judgment explaining his decision to allow lay opinion about the substance of conversation, where the words themselves could no longer be recalled.I'll write a full post on it when time …
When is lay opinion ‘necessary’?
Edit: I have been pointed to the decision of Connex Group Australia v Butt [2004] NSW 379 on this point. White J delivers a comprehensive judgment explaining his decision to allow lay opinion about the substance of conversation, where the words themselves could no longer be recalled.I'll write a full post on it when time …
Racing cars
Yet More Edits: In King v The Queen [2012] HCA 24, an appeal advancing flawed jury directions disentitled a culpable driver of conviction on a lesser charge, the High Court considered the nature of dangerous driving; its history, purpose, and relationship to other offences where use of a motor vehicle has created actual or potential …