The notion in our legal system of advocates acting on instructions is well accepted.Lawyers are contractually and ethically obliged to obey their client’s instructions. Indeed, they may not act contrary to their instructions. It is for this reason that generally, an accused person is bound by the way a trial is conducted by their counsel: TPC v …
Continue reading My instructions are…what are my instructions?
A significant debate seems to be occurring in the UK at the moment, though from 12,000 miles away it's hard to quite know what it's all really about or how it might finish, and whether it might have any effect here in Australia.But, if the concerns are legitimate — and there are enough informed participants …
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 …
Continue reading Church v R [2012] NSWCCA 149: perverting justice by false mitigation
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 …
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 …
Continue reading Legislation Watch: Judicial Commission of Victoria Act 2010