The Sentencing Advisory Council's new SACStat program (tweeted about by my learned colleague a few days ago) is interesting, colourful and fairly intuitive. Searches of dispositions in the Magistrates' Court are recent (2009 - 2011) and statistically significant (only offences for which at least 50 examples are available will return a result). They are an …
Tag: advocacy
Puttage
I realised some time ago that, no matter what other rules to follow as an advocate, there is only one rule that should apply to everything an advocate says and does in court. I'm certain it's the only important rule for an advocate to obey, even though it's broken by all advocates some of the …
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 …
iPad setup for court use
If you have or are about to buy an iPad and plan to use it in Court, here's a brief intro to one way you might choose to set it up and get stuff onto it for use in the courtroom.Last time I tried this, it seems that the video doesn't embed properly in emails …
Into the fray
Some time ago now we blogged about excessive judicial intervention during the running of a case. As we said at the time, it must sometimes be difficult to balance the desirability of properly understanding the evidence given (or simply to resist the urge to jump in and do something properly), as against the importance of …