It's a useful phrase. It doesn't mean I'll do it now and it doesn't mean I'm never going to do it. The beauty (and vice) lies in nobody knowing exactly what it means.In Legal Services Board v Werden [2011] VSC 74 the defendant, a solicitor who had ripped off his clients, successfully resisted an application …
Tag: criminal procedure
Common law offences triable summarily
Section 28 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009 provides that common law offences punishable by not more than 10 years imprisonment or referred to in Schedule 2 may be heard summarily (as long as the requirements of s 29 are satisfied). Penalties for common law offences are set out in s 320 of the Crimes …
Fit to plead?
Advocates who regularly appear in summary courts know well the questions associated with mental impairment and fitness to plead arguments.Late last year the Supreme Court decided in C L (a minor) v Lee & ors [2010] VSC 517 that the Children's Court couldn't determine if an accused person was fit to be tried and so …
Updates to the JCV Sentencing Manual
It's easy to sign up for updates from the Judicial College.If you don't subscribe, the JCV still make it easy to go in and check for recent updates to their major publications. Once inside a Manual look on the right side of the page for a clickable link that says Recent updates. (The Sentencing Manual …
Web-based appearances
The Magistrates' Court is about to start staggered listings. It plans to predominantly list criminal or complex cases in the mornings, and traffic and less complex cases in the afternoons.Additionally, all venues of the Court will commence sitting at 9:30 AM.You can read about it here.As part of this change, the Magistrates' Court is also …