Activity 3j
Evaluation of the recommended Public Defenders Scheme reform 1. Victoria Legal Aid has recommended that a statutory public defenders scheme be established, which would involve parliament passing legislation to create an office of dedicated, full-time criminal barristers, paid a fixed salary from public monies, who would have the task of representing criminal defendants who qualified […]
Activity 3i
Evaluation of the recommended juror eligibility reform 1. Attempts have been made in Victoria to increase jury eligibility through legislation – by reducing the occupational groups that are ineligible for service, and by halving the waiting period of ineligibility after a person leaves their job or retires (and potentially by not excluding people with physical […]
Activity 3h
Evaluation of the recommended committal hearing reform 1. In 2020, the Victorian Law Reform Commission (VLRC) recommended that the test for committals be abolished, and that committal hearings should be replaced by an “issues” hearing in the Magistrates’ Court (so that instead of focusing on filtering out weak cases, the magistrate would focus on identifying […]
Activity 3g
Evaluation of the recommended Youth Peer Panelreform 1. The Youth Peer Panel recommended reform involves a volunteer judge leading a panel discussion between the offender and a panel of young people who all work with the offender to develop an ‘accountability plan’ for their punishment and rehabilitation. 2. The Victorian Government launched the Youth Peer […]
Activity 3f
Evaluation of the recent improper questions reform 1. The recent reform to disallow improper questions for all witnesses giving evidencemakes it mandatory that improper questions be disallowed, and expandsthe rule to cover all witnesses in all disputes. 2. Changes made to s41 of the Evidence Act 2008 by the Justice Legislation Miscellaneous Amendment Act […]
Activity 3e
Evaluation of the recent committal hearing reform 1. The recent committal hearing reforminvolves committal hearings for cognitively impaired complainants and child complainants in sexual offence matters being abolished in 2019. 2. The Justice Legislation Miscellaneous Amendment Act 2018 (Vic) came into effect in March 2019, abolishing committal hearings for cognitively impaired complainants and child […]
Activity 3d
Evaluation of the recent support dogs reform 1. The recent support dogs reform involves the launch of a full-time support dog programme for vulnerable witnesses, making trained dogs available to support witnesses through stages in the criminal justice system. 2. Following a 12-week trial, the Victorian Office of Public Prosecutions in 2019 launched a full-time […]
Activity 3c
Tailoring support services to cultural difference 1. Students could point out that: many people speak Aboriginal English which may be difficult for duty solicitors to understand, and which also incorporates indigenous words, and some English words that have different meanings for many […]
Activity 3b
Xie murder trial 1. May 2011 – Robert Xie charged with the murder of five members of his extended family. September 2013 – first trial scheduled to begin. 17 March 2014 – first trial actually begins. The trial was later aborted because of the emergence of new evidence. February 2015 – third trial began. […]
Activity 3a
Sentencing appeals 1. It seemed that sentencing appeal reforms were needed in the Supreme Court (Court of Appeal) because of the backlog of criminal sentencing appeals. 2. In February 2011 the Court of Appeal reduced the number of sitting justices to two per case from three, and hired another Judge of Appeal, taking the number […]