The recent history of Browne v Dunn

Edit: For a recent example of an appellate court taking a grim view of a practitioner's failure to uphold their obligations, see the civil case of Baulch v Lyndoch Warnambool [2010] VSCA 30.AJA Byrne didn't mince words [at 23]:The conduct of defence counsel in this instance is to be condemned. It was not an inadvertent …

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Green v The Queen [2011] VSCA 311: just punishment, specific deterrence and Verdins

This is another post about Verdins. In that case, Maxwell P, Buchanan and Vincent JJA laid out six principles [at 32]: 1. The condition may reduce the moral culpability of the offending conduct, as distinct from the offender’s legal responsibility. Where that is so, the condition affects the punishment that is just in all the …

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'Consent' is not mitigation to child sexual abuse

In Clarkson v The Queen; EJA v The Queen [2011] VSCA 157 the Court of Appeal (comprised of five judges) considered the relevance of an unresisting victim to sentencing an adult offender for child sex offences.Maxwell ACJ, Nettle, Neave, Redlich and Harper JJA [at 3]:The absolute prohibition on sexual activity with a child is founded …

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