Legal Aid NSW Criminal Law Division

Special Hearings in the District and Supreme Courts

Presented by Helen Shaw, Senior Solicitor in the Indictable Section at Central Sydney Office of Legal Aid, this episode discusses Special Hearings in the District and Supreme Courts and follows Helen's previous episode on Fitness Issues & Fitness Hearings in the District & Supreme Courts.

How the recent decision of Parente v R [2017] NSWCCA 284 affects sentencing in drug supply cases

This episode, presented by Tom Quilter Public Defender, is about sentencing in drug supply cases and how the law has been affected by a recent 2017 CCA decsion of Parente, in which Tom was Junior Counsel.

Early Appropriate Guilty Plea law reform

Rob Hoyles and Daniel Covington from the 'Early Appropriate Guilty Plea Justice Reform Team' at Legal Aid, discuss the practicalities of the Justice Legislation Amendment (Committals and Guilty Pleas) Bill 2017.

Lewis v Sergeant Riley [2017] NSWCA 272; Forensic Procedure Orders Appeals

Jeremy Styles, Senior Solicitor at the Aboriginal Legal Servce NSW/ACT discusses Lewis v Sergeant Rily [2017] NSWCA 272 where the Court of Appeal (Basten JA, White JA and Fagan JA in separate judgments) found that the District Court had a power to hear a rehearing appeal from a Forensic Procedure Order made by the Local Court.

Fitness issues and fitness hearings in the District and Supreme Courts

This session is presented by Helen Shaw and focuses on issues that give rise to a question about a client's fitness. We look at the Presser Criteria, the procedures for fitness hearings, and the legislation that governs the procedures.