Young offenders

• New summary of programs diverting young people from being dealt with directly in the courts: [13.290] and Table 13.1 at [13.335]; including the Youth Koori Court practice: [13.1115]. 
• The role of lawyers in diversionary schemes: [13.300]-[13.335].
• NSW and Commonwealth DPP policies and discretions re charging young people: [13.840].
• Pathways for young persons to reduce or waive outstanding fines: [13.1830], [13.1840].
• Procedures for the transfer of young people into adult prisons and the placement of persons aged 18 to 20 in detention centres: [13.1020], [13.1060], [13.1500], [13.2110]-[13.2300].
• The debate over raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 years – the originating document: United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No 24 (2019) on children’s rights in the child justice system, September 2019, paras 21-22: [13.130].
• Restrictions on strip searching of young people: [9.76], [13.610].
• Updated details of the over-representation of young Indigenous persons in the criminal justice system: [13.900].
• Updated statistics on the sentencing outcomes and  disposition of cases that come before the Children’s Court: [13.1380].

Summary procedure in the Local Court

• Notification of election to go to the District Court: Johnston v Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW) [2021] NSWSC 333: [15.50].

Committal procedure in the Local Court 

• Outcomes of committals to higher courts in 2020: [16.110].

Pre-hearing procedures

• Chart of important dates from committal to District Court trial: [17.50].
• Chart of important dates from committal to Supreme Court trial: [17.70].
• Re-statement of the rule against duplicity in charging: [17.980].
• Updated court-ordered consultations with the prosecution: [17.480].
• Change of venue/application for a stay - to seek to have a female judicial officer: [17.1390], [17.2613].
• Legal Profession Uniform Law Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules 2015 and Legal Profession Uniform Conduct (Barristers) Rules 2015: [17.140], [17.180], [17.220], [17.280].
• Results of no-bill applications: [17.1550].

Hearings

• Procedures when the accused absconds during a hearing: [18.320].
• Security considerations versus the right to a fair trial - fortified docks, glass cages etc: [18.700].

Hearings – conduct of defence

• Unrepresented accused and applications for an adjournment: [19.50].
• Defence lawyer’s role when the client fails to appear at court: [19.220].
• Advising the accused whether to give evidence: [19.650].

Hearings – conduct of prosecution

• The capacity of a private person to initiate and conduct a private prosecution: [20.160].
• NSW and Commonwealth DPP policies on charge negotiations: [20.290].
• Where a case may be re-opened in reply: [20.640].

Hearings – witnesses

• Reflection on the expanding use of witnesses appearing remotely: [21.210]-[21.390].
• An example of the operation in practice of the requirement that someone else must ask a witness in cross-examination the questions that an unrepresented-accused wishes to ask: [21.610].
• Assessing credibility in the virtual court room: [21.850].

Hearings – role of judges and magistrates

• Applications for a judge-alone trial: [22.10].
• Length of adjournment prior to handing down a reserved decision: [22.800].
• Judicial immunity from suit: [22.960].

Hearings – jury and verdicts

• Updated section on juries conducting unauthorised research, including on the internet: [23.490].

Sentencing – introduction and principles

• Updated list of sentencing guides – NSW and Commonwealth offences: [24.10], [24.30].

Sentencing – procedure and fact finding

• The judicial duty to sentence overrides tactical moves to avoid maximum penalties: [25.10].
• Whether time spent in custody for an offence overturned on appeal can ever be taken into consideration in  sentencing for an unrelated offence: [25.190].
• Taking NSW and Commonwealth offences on a Form 1 into consideration in sentencing: [25.550], [25.590].
• Cumulation in the Local Court: [25.750].
• How a judge assesses the offender’s version of events and the agreed facts  when sentencing: [25.1070].

Sentencing – pleading 

• Updated checklist for lawyers when advising and representing clients on pleading: [26.10], [26.400].
• Do-it-yourself pleading guides on the NSW Law Access website: [26.60].
• New material to consider when client says “I didn’t do it but I want to plead guilty”: [26.220].
• Issues that affect the discount for a plea: [26.330].
• Updated statistics on the rate of pleading in the Local, District and Supreme Courts: [26.380].
• What is the “earliest opportunity” to enter a plea: [26.410].

Sentencing – relevant factors

• Setting the non-parole period for NSW and Commonwealth offences: [27.10].
• Aboriginal offenders: [27.80].
• Taking assistance into account in sentencing: [27.250].
• Re-sentencing process when an offender has failed to give promised assistance: [27.260].
• The need to provide detailed information when seeking to have a discount for onerous pre-sentence bail conditions: [27.320].
• When is payment of compensation counted as evidence of remorse: [27.340].
• Deportation and sentencing: [27.530].
• Where there is evidence that drug addiction arose from circumstances over which an offender with a drug addiction had no control –given drugs as a child, experienced serious child abuse, use arose out of a motor vehicle or other injury: [27.590].
• Post-sentence developments raised in CCA appeals: [27.710].
• Extra curial punishment and sentencing: AB v The Queen (No 3) (2019) 97 NSWLR 1046; 276 A Crim R 443; [2019] NSWCCA 46: [27.720]
• Confiscation of assets cannot be taken into consideration when sentencing for a NSW offence: [27.720].
• Hardship on family must be exceptional to be taken into consideration when sentencing for a NSW offence: [27.750].
• Gambling addiction as a factor in sentencing: [27.800].
• A court may not take into consideration payments and forfeitures paid by the offender in relation to the subject offence(s) under NSW and Commonwealth proceeds of crime legislation: [27.1160].
• Sentencing after a retrial – second sentence may be longer: [27.1220].
• Loss of a NSW parliamentary pension cannot be taken into consideration when sentencing for NSW offences: [27.1320].
• Aggravating factor that the offender committed the offence in the home of the victim applies to offenders who live or visit the home as well as intruders: [27.1580].

Sentencing options

• Revised chart of NSW sentencing alternatives: [28.10].
• Revised chart of Commonwealth sentencing alternatives: [28.20].
• Compliance with the maximum penalty provision in the Local Court: [28.150].
• Mandatory, guideline and standard NSW sentences : [28.250]-[28.280].
• Inter-action between sentences for NSW and Commonwealth offences imposed at the same time, include setting non-parole periods: [28.420].
• Continuing detention or supervision after a sentence has expired for NSW and Commonwealth offenders: [28.650], [28.660].
• Placement on a sex offender register may not be taken into consideration as a mitigating factor when sentencing for NSW offences: [28.680].
• Steps in considering eligibility to serve a sentence by way of an Intensive Corrections Order: [28.810].
• Drug Court sentencing options and process: [28.920]-[28.960].
• Fines and how to pay them: [28.1460].
• Cutting out fines in custody: [28.1500], [28.1505].
• Compulsory drug treatment program in prison and relationship with the Drug Court: [28.2010].
• Official police warnings and cautions, including cannabis cautions: [28.2200], [28.2220].

Appeals – Local/District/Supreme and Court of Appeal

• New and comprehensive chart of the appeal avenues from all NSW courts:  [29.40].
• An appellant should be aware of the sequence of appeals allowed from the same Local Court case: [29.10].
• Appeals and the principle of finality: [29.110].
• The slip rule, or correcting accidental error in judgments: [29.200].
• Correcting errors of law in sentencing: [29.210].
• Appeals from the Local Court arriving in the Court of Appeal: [29.1050].

Court of Criminal Appeal

• Incompetent appeals and re-opening appeals: [30.90].
• Powers and duties of the Registrar of the Court of Criminal Appeal: [30.210].
• Bail in the Court of Criminal Appeal – when an acquittal is overturned, a retrial has been ordered: [30.510].
• Discretionary considerations in prosecution appeals against acquittals: [30.930].

The end of appeals – Inquiries, Vice Regal pardons and High Court appeals

• Raising a ground of appeal for the first time in the High Court: [31.330].
• Appeals, reviews and pardons –the Kathleen Folbigg litigation: [31.400].
• The conduct of an inquiry into a NSW conviction: [31.450].
• Appeal against the findings of an inquiry: [31.480].
• Pardons and the vice-regal prerogative of mercy: [31.600].
• Habeus corpus: [31.640].
• NSW Governor’s powers including the exercise of the sentence commutation and pardon powers: [31.860].
• Governor-General’s powers to consider a pardon or sentence commutation: [31.880].
   

Criminal Procedure (NSW) provides in-depth practical and procedural knowledge on how to approach your criminal case in New South Wales, from the moment of arrest to appealing a sentence decision (including remedies if no conviction results). Topics discussed in the service are: arrest, charging, bail, detention and questioning, search warrants, telephone interception and surveillance devices, pre- and post-arrest directions and searches, identification material, taking and using body samples, body cavity searches, mentally ill / intellectually disabled persons, summary procedure, committal procedure, pre-hearing procedure, hearings (conduct of defence / conduct of prosecution / witnesses / role of judges and magistrates / jury and verdicts), sentencing and appeals.

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