By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim It’s hard know what the warmer months of 2020/21 have in store for the citizens of NSW. As last summer expired, large tracts of the country had burnt to the ground, and Sydneysiders had begun wearing facemasks to guard against the smoke hanging in the atmosphere. Then just days… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Former sole principal at Lane Cove legal practice Leslie Hargrave Lawyers, James Leslie recently had his name struck off the roll of solicitors kept by the NSW Supreme Court, as it was found he’d mishandled trust money in numerous ways, which constituted professional misconduct. In late 2016, Leslie was… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Towards the end of December 2019, former Sydney solicitor Michael Croke found that his barrister John Korn was no longer available to attend his trial at the end of January 2020, because another of Mr Korn’s client had to be retried on sexual assault charges after a trial resulted… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim On 25 May 1979, Luciano De Simoni broke into a house with intent to steal in the Perth suburb of Mundaring. The regular burglar had believed the house was empty and was surprised when he was disturbed by an occupant – a young man, he thought – whom he… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim On sentencing Torikai Walsh, NSW District Court Judge Clive Jefferies accepted that the 27-year-old Coffs Harbour local had acted under duress, when facilitating the importation of cocaine, which was secreted within consignments in various “sophisticated ways”. Walsh had become involved in the drug importation ring after being threatened with… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Victim Support ACT revealed last month that there’s been a rise in reports of domestic and family violence in the capital territory during the COVID-19 pandemic, which had translated to a 130 percent increase in reported incidents in June, compared with the same period last year. This has included… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim The Australian criminal justice system has its foundations in the British courts, which have long held the presumption of innocence as one of their most basic tenets. Indeed, the principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty is said to go back as far as the book of… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim NSW parliament has just passed a bill that overhauls the way the court system deals defendants found to have a mental health or a cognitive impairment and subsequently have their charges dropped, along with an order imposed that requires them to undergo treatment. The Mental Health and Cognitive Impairment… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Stuart McKinnon was arrested on 2 May 2018. The NSW resident was taken into police custody in relation to two instances of drug supply that occurred in March 2017. These involved his having organised the handover of drugs via a third party and receiving the accompanying payment himself. McKinnon… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim In December 2012, the Legal Practice Board of Western Australia charged James Dean and Mark Simonsen with engaging in legal practice despite being unqualified to do so. The pair of non-lawyers had provided legal advice to a husband divorcing his wife and charged $5,000 for the service. The non-lawyers… Read more »
