Committals — raising the bar

So Victorian Attorney-General Robert Clark is considering abolishing committal hearings. At the very least, significant legislative reform is likely to avert what he calls the “unnecessary examination of cases” at committal.What might those reforms look like? Victoria's chief magistrate Ian Gray has some interesting suggestions, which he outlined in my recent interview with him for The …

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Committals to go?

The issue of abolishing committals is back in the spotlight again. The proposal seems to have come around every few years for the past two decades, like Batman films.The Australian Institute of Criminology ran a conference on committals back in 1990. It's interesting to read the papers, because the arguments for and against appear similar …

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Church v R [2012] NSWCCA 149: perverting justice by false mitigation

Administration of justice offences (attempts to pervert the course of justice, perjury, concealing offences for a benefit, and the like) have the potential to lead courts into error and undermine public confidence in the justice system as a whole.The penalty for serious abuse of the system's trust is frequently greater than whatever consequence the offender …

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DPP v Gibson [2012] VSC 297: generalia specialibus non derogant

The Evidence Act 2008 is not a Code. It doesn't exclude the common law and, by s 8, it doesn't affect the operation of any other Act. It was argued for the respondent in DPP v Gibson [2012] VSC 297 that s 164 of the Evidence Act removes the traditional need for corroboration required for …

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VLA fact sheets

Victoria Legal Aid are reducing the number of cases their duty solicitors will become involved in at sittings of the Magistrates' Court. The changes to their criteria are discussed here.They say on their website:From July 2012 duty lawyer services in the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria will prioritise people in custody, and people who cannot afford …

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