The New South Wales parliament has passed legislation which expands the scope of child sexual offences, child abuse material offences and female genital mutilation offences, as well as enables the conviction of a person for sexual offences and interfering with a corpse where it is uncertain as to whether the victim was alive or deceased… Read more »
A recent decision in the Supreme Court of New South Wales has restrained a man from using funds obtained from a client after finding him that he engaged in unqualified legal practice by falsely presenting himself to be a qualified lawyer and creating a fake legal practice, before taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from… Read more »
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a range of restrictions being placed upon the conduct of Local Court cases, and the situation until now in the District Court has been that no new jury trials have been set down, or allowed to commence, until further notice. The measures are designed to reduce the prospects of… Read more »
For hundreds of years, juries in NSW criminal trials were required to return ‘unanimous’ verdicts of either guilty or not guilty, in order for an accused person to be convicted or acquitted of a crime. This meant that all 12 members of the jury had to reach the same conclusion about whether the prosecution had… Read more »
We previously reported on the case of 44-year old Silvia Schreuder who, along with 42-year old Jason Hall, was charged with larceny and fraud offences after stealing 62-year old aged care nurse Kay Shaylor’s handbag as she lay in a critical condition after a car accident. The collision occurred when Mr Shaylor’s vehicle was hit… Read more »
It is integral to our justice system that parties be able to require the attendance of witnesses at court to answer questions. A party, such as the defence or prosecution, will normally require the attendance of a witness by issuing them with a subpoena to ‘give evidence’ (ie testify). Failure to attend can result in… Read more »
Lawyers and court staff are describing the trial of two parents accused of ongoing child sexual abuse as “the worst ever heard”. The horrific allegations were ventilated in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court, where the girl’s father and mother stood trial over the past 12 weeks. The parents were charged with a total of 89… Read more »
Clients charged with serious criminal offences whose cases proceed to a higher court – such as the District or Supreme Court – are often ‘in the dark’ about the steps involved in a jury trial. And why wouldn’t they be? Television shows often depict a dramatic trial consisting of a little cross-examination (almost always involving… Read more »
Being appointed ‘silk’ or Senior Counsel (SC) is the ‘Holy Grail’ for barristers. It allows them to charge a lot more for their services and gives them a certain ‘cache’ as standing out as the most respected in their profession. Needless to say, the stakes to attain the rank of Senior Counsel are high. Every… Read more »
A Brisbane businessman will have to pay more than $400,000 after a court found he had been grossly underpaying workers at his West End 7-Eleven convenience store. Sheng-Chieh Lo, who owns a store at the centre of a wider investigation into systemic exploitation of workers by 7-Eleven, has been penalised $68,058 personally, and his company,… Read more »