Sir David Carruthers, the Implementation Monitor of the Police Informants Royal Commission, has requested the Criminal Bar’s participation in a process about to commence to review the implementation of recommendations relating to disclosure by the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants. The review will use a case study approach that focuses on the ...

The Courts of the Future Network in conjunction with Monash University Law Faculty & the Victorian Juries Commissioner’s Office will be hosting a conference on Friday 9 June 2023 at Monash Law Chambers (Melbourne CBD). The theme for the conference is ‘EMERGING CHALLENGES IN THE MANAGEMENT OF SEXUAL ASSAULT TRIALS.’ The following information has been provided: Recent ...

Michael Stanton has authored a paper, “Instruments of Injustice: The Emergence of Mandatory Sentencing in Victoria”, which has been recently published in the Monash University Law Review. The paper is available here: https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/journal_contribution/Instruments_of_Injustice_The_Emergence_of_Mandatory_Sentencing_in_Victoria/22121348/2.

ALSWA has a vacancy for a criminal lawyer in its Kalgoorlie office. The position will involve daily appearance work in the Magistrates and Children’s Court in relation to contests, pleas and bail applications. There is also scope to appear in the District Court in relation to pleas and trial work.  The office services one of ...

Victoria Legal Aid has provided the following information: VLA Chambers is recruiting! We are recruiting a new Senior Public Defender to replace wonderful Zoe Broughton, who is returning to the Bar after 8 years of excellent service. This is an ongoing role for an experienced and highly skilled criminal trial and/or appellate advocate. There are ...

The new CBA committee is looking forward to the challenges ahead. We seek the feedback of criminal law barristers as to the issues they confront and we will aim to address these and continue to try and ensure the criminal justice system is as fair and efficient as it can be. There will be many ...

SnapLaw continues as the new way forward in the preparation of plea submissions. As a resource designed to enhance efficiency and effectiveness, SnapLaw utilises a unique indexing solution that enables immediate access to case digests summarizing sentencing principles extracted from 800+ HCA and VSCA cases. The service also features links to cases, legislation, practice notes, DPP policy, sentencing guidelines, statistics ...

On 24 October 2022, a workshop involving many eminent participants was convened by the Research Hub for Language in Forensic Evidence and Deakin Law School, in collaboration with Melbourne Law School’s Criminal Research Forum. The workshop considered problems identified by linguistic science regarding the use of transcripts by police ‘ad hoc experts’ to assist jurors ...

On 10 December 2022 the Bail Regulations 2022 (Vic) came into operation, with the effect that the Bail Regulations 2012 (Vic) have now been revoked. Members may wish to update any bail precedent documents. The County Court has advised that it has updated all of the relevant bail forms contained on its website.

Please find attached the recently published Criminal Division Practice Note.