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Legal Papers

Defending Traffic Offences

This paper discusses some ways in which traffic offences can be defended. It is intended to be a practical guide for traffic law practitioners who daily advise and represent individuals charged with the commission of traffic offences. It is not, and does not pretend to be, an academic…

New bail act amendments: keeping ahead of the changes

2022 Bail Amendments [s.22B] Section 22B was enacted by the Bail Amendment Act 2022 and applies to any bail decision made after the commencement of that Act, namely, on 27 June 2022: clause 45, Bail Regulation 2021 at [9-220]. Are the Amendments Retrospective? Whilst the legislation applies to…

Recent consent reforms (NSW)

For at least the past decade, the law of sexual assault in NSW has been in a seemingly constant state of flux. With almost nauseating regularity, Parliament has made numerous amendments to the substantive, procedural and evidentiary law regarding sex crimes. Some of these have been a genuine…

Criminalisation of coercive control/abusive behaviour

This has been a hot topic for a while now and rightly so. There needs to be continuing community discussion and education to ensure the balance in any future laws will ultimately be right. The NSW Government is looking to join the only other state in Australia, namely,…

Tips, tricks and pitfalls for Local Court Practitioners

It is trite to observe that the Local Court of NSW is, by far, the busiest criminal jurisdiction of all NSW Courts. According to the Bureau of Statistic, in 2018 the NSW Local Court finalised 128,932 criminal cases. By comparison, the higher jurisdictions combined finalised a comparatively modest…

Defending Traffic Offences

This paper discusses some ways in which traffic offences can be defended. It is intended to be a practical guide for traffic law practitioners who daily advise and represent individuals charged with the commission of traffic offences.  It is not, and does not pretend to be, an academic…

Strategies & Practical Considerations in Sexual Assault Matters

The reader is reminded that this paper is not intended to include detailed legal research, either as to the common law or legislation relating to sex matters. It is intended to provide the ‘basics” in some terminology and directions given by a trial judge; and to get the…

EAGP Reforms

The Amending Act [EAGP] passed Parliament on 18 October 2017 and the Department of Justice [“DoJ”] has advised it is expected that the EAGP reform will commence by May 2018. The Department of Justice [“DoJ”] has referred to the EAGP reforms as “a systemic shift in the way…

Defending PCA Charges

PCA (Proscribed Concentration of Alcohol) charges are rarely defended. There are a number of very good reasons for this fact. For one thing, in most cases there is no reasonable prospect of a successful defence. The system for the detection, documentation and prosecution of PCA offences is so…

Involuntariness Case Study: Dean Waters

I appeared for Dean Waters as trial advocate, in my first murder trial [at Newcastle Supreme Court] in 1997 before his Honour RS Hulme J (as he then was), when after a 9 day trial, the jury took about 30 minutes to find the accused not guilty of…

AVO’s and Appeals to the District Court

This paper will cover two separate topics which, it is hoped, are of interest and practical utility to criminal law practitioners. As is necessitated by the allocated time, and no doubt much to the relief of the audience, the focus of this paper will be inexorably practical and…

PCA’s, Drugs, and Domestic Violence

This paper, and the presentation which it accompanies, will cover three distinct areas of the criminal law, specifically: drink driving, drugs and domestic violence. Click Here to Open PDFDownload

Assault, Affray, and Self Defence

This paper deals with the offences of assault, affray and, as a separate topic, the defence of self-defence (with a particular focus on its application to assault and affray charges). Click Here to Open PDFDownload