Edit: The Judicial College has published some information about summary case conferencing in its Criminal Procedure Manual at 3.3.
VLA have started a Summary Procedure Bulletin on their website. The intention seems to be to keep court users informed of the progressive roll-out of the scheme. This one talks about the establishment of Brief Integration Service Centres (BISCs) at Cragieburn and Moorabbin.
Chief Magistrate’s Direction No 3 of 2010 comes into effect today.
It replaces Direction No 6 of 2009, discussed here last year. Like No 6, the new direction doesn’t offer much in the way of detail, leaving the process to vary from one Magistrates’ Court location to the next. There’s more information contained in the Best Practice Guide to the Criminal Procedure Act, discussed here.
The new direction suggests that contest mention hearings will be retained as part of summary procedure. (There had been a suggestion from some quarters that formal contest mention hearings had become irrelevant since the introduction of summary case conferencing).
I'm sorry. What is the difference between this new direction and the old one?
Contest mention HAS beome irelevant since SCC came in!
Maybe the police prosecutors should consider posting a notice somewhere that nominates whether they want to be contacted by phone, fax or e-mail. Every time I contact a different case manager by one method I get told that I should be using one of the other two.A little bit of consistency across the metro area would probably go a long way. That's not something that the court can force on the prosecution. It is something they have to sort out for themselves.
I'm sorry. What is the difference between this new direction and the old one?
Contest mention HAS beome irelevant since SCC came in!
Maybe the police prosecutors should consider posting a notice somewhere that nominates whether they *want* to be contacted by phone, fax or e-mail. Every time I contact a different case manager by one method I get told that I should be using one of the other two.A little bit of consistency across the metro area would probably go a long way. That's not something that the court can force on the prosecution. It is something they have to sort out for themselves.
contest mention is not irrelevant! summary case conference is slow and ofen useless in resolving a matter. There shouldn't even be an option for it when the accused is not represented. These matters should go straight to contest mention. And I agree with the above comment about the difficulty in contacting prosecutors. perhaps the better system is to have a notice of appearance forwarded to the prosecutors office and then the onus be on the prosecutor to call or email at least a week prior to the contest mention?
contest mention is not irrelevant! summary case conference is slow and ofen useless in resolving a matter. There shouldn't even be an option for it when the accused is not represented. These matters should go straight to contest mention. And I agree with the above comment about the difficulty in contacting prosecutors. perhaps the better system is to have a notice of appearance forwarded to the prosecutors office and then the onus be on the prosecutor to call or email at least a week prior to the contest mention?
When is the Notice To Appear going to happen at every court. That's what Summary Case Conferencing was supposed to be for but its the l;ast thing to come in.
When is the Notice To Appear going to happen at every court. That's what Summary Case Conferencing was supposed to be for but its the l;ast thing to come in.