The value of a penalty unit and fee unit was decided a few years ago, then attached to a fixed rate of indexation. The value of each unit is usually published in the Government Gazette.The most recent Gazetted increase was on 29 March 2012 in G13 of 2012 at page 655. The values from 1 July were going …
Tag: law reform
Chief Magistrate calls for review of police prosecutors
The Age reported two days ago that Chief Magistrate Ian Gray suggested reviewing police acting as prosecutors in the Magistrates' Court (and presumably also the Children's Court). Assuming he was quoted accurately, what the Chief Magistrate said was genuine independence from investigating police was a problem, and also that police aren't trained or resource adequately …
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Counting widgets
The Chief Justice of Victoria delivered a speech at the University of Melbourne on 1 May 2012 titled, Courts and Democracy - Just another Government Agency?. A variation of it was published as an opinion piece, No place for justice on a conveyor belt, in The Age last Thursday. Both built upon a previous theme …
Judge as jury
Following on from yesterday’s post, it’s worth asking: what are the vital aspects of a court?It’s a question that lawyers and academics have devoted volumes to, but for the purposes of this discussion I’d like to focus on:• An independent, disinterested decision-maker; and• A somewhat predictable, rules-based approach to decision-making.When it comes to who will …
Witnessing affidavits and statutory declarations
In the wake of the brouhaha over police affidavits (causing the state government to rush through legislation to retrospectively validate their search warrant applications, discussed here) it's probably timely for everyone who witnesses documents to reacquaint themselves with the formalities. I don't know how much time law schools spend on this issue these days, but …
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