Victoria Legal Aid has recently conducted a review into its system of payments to private practitioners in criminal matters. Their 107 page report can be found here. Widespread changes are expected.The biggest impact to practice in the Magistrates' Court is movement to a whole of job fee structure, replacing grants on an appearance basis. Cases …
Month: September 2010
Dickson v The Queen [2010] HCA 30: the direct collision of Commonwealth and State offences
Yesterday the High Court quashed convictions on Victorian conspiracy charges, finding they were directly inconsistent with Commonwealth conspiracy laws.Dickson v The Queen is sure to have some prosecutors scanning charge sheets for offences that ought to have been laid under Commonwealth law. But like all High Court decisions, the impact of Dickson will only become …
Adjournment applications
Edit: The Court of Appeal strongly rejected the notion that adjournments are of an administrative character, and so attract human rights considerations, in Slaveski v The Queen (on the application of the Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of Victoria) [2012] VSCA 48.Redlich and Nettle JJA [at 106]: The Commission contended that, when a trial judge …
Legal dictionary on the go
Lexis Nexis AU has a new legal dictionary app for iOS devices.The Butterworths Concise Australian Legal Dictionary has ‘only’ 7600 words — so doesn't seem to be the full thing. But more portable than the hard-copy. (The full edition is still only available in the 1997 edition; the concise paperback was last published in 2004 …
Legislation Watch: Judicial Commission of Victoria Act 2010
Edit: The Bill had a second reading in the upper house, then disappeared into committee and was never heard from again. It lapsed at the end of the last parliamentary session, and would now need to be reintroduced to be considered by the new parliament. Victoria's Judicial Commission has arrived. The new legislation announced by …
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