Last week I wrote about an unrepresented appellant who challenged a fundamental principle of sentencing in the County Court. While I've previously warned of the serious disadvantage that unrepresented litigants place themselves at, they do occasionally bring a fresh perspective to issues that normally get taken for granted. This doesn't always work out for the …
Tag: licence
Changes to VLA eligibility
Victoria Legal Aid have been reviewing their grants procedure recently. We wrote about some changes back here.From tomorrow, people charged in the Magistrates’ Court with traffic offences under the Road Safety Act 1986 will only be eligible for a grant of legal assistance if they have a psychiatric or intellectual disability or an acquired brain …
Cook v Commissioner of Police [2012] QCA 118: demerit disqualification a matter of law
We've previously discussed the sometimes-fine distinctions between errors of fact and errors of law. (In fact, when I look, we've covered it almost ad nauseam: Fishing for a fact? Ostrowski v Palmer; Mistake of fact or mistake of law? and Mistakes of fact, mistakes of law (revisited) are the main posts on the topic.)The Queensland …
Drug-driving offences
Offences under s 49 of the Road Safety Act 1986 are notorious for overlap.Since before Mills v Meeking (1990) 169 CLR 214 it has been observed that the prosecution gets significant forensic advantage from charging the same act in several different ways. (And s 51 of the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1981 allows them to …
DPP v Serbest [2012] VSC 35: choice to refuse is no defence
DPP v Serbest [2012] VSC 35 is the latest drink-driving appeal dealing with an offence of refusing to accompany police for a breath test, contrary to Road Safety Act s 49(1)(e).Serbest considered if the police need to formally require a motorist to accompany them, and if the motorist needs to understand they arerequired to accompany …
Continue reading DPP v Serbest [2012] VSC 35: choice to refuse is no defence