The Magistrates’ Court is limited in the periods of imprisonment it can impose by ss 113, 113A and 113B of the Sentencing Act 1991. The jurisdictional limits are two years for a single charge, and five years in respect of several offences committed at the same time. These restrictions apply regardless of the maximum period …
Continue reading Dankovic v The Queen [2012] VSCA 255: penalty limits in the Magistrates' Court
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 …
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 …
The Road Safety and Sentencing Acts Amendment Act 2012 passed the upper house earlier this week, though it's still only to be found here under the Bills for the current Parliamentary session.The Government's press release says the Act will permit Courts to impose interlock conditions on folks getting their licence back after a drink-driving infringement. …
Continue reading Legislation Watch: Road Safety and Sentencing Acts Amendment Act 2012
This Bill makes a couple of minor changes to sentencing procedure. The Second Reading Speech is here, the Explanatory Memorandum is here. Unless proclaimed earlier, it has an automatic commencement date of 31st January 2013.Clause 4, an amendment to s 60 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009 which purports to give the Magistrates' Court authority …