Further reforms to simplify jury directions

Victoria’s jury direction laws will be further simplified under legislation being brought into Parliament today.

Attorney-General Robert Clark said the Jury Directions Amendment Bill would make further improvements to law governing the lengthy and complex directions that judges are often required to give to jurors in criminal cases.

“For years jury directions had become so complex that judges found it difficult to comply with the law and jurors struggled to understand the lengthy directions they were forced to listen to,” Mr Clark said.

“This frequently led to appeals and retrials, often on technical grounds causing delays and wasted costs as well as further stress for victims of crime, their families and others involved.

The Jury Directions Act 2013 which commenced on 1 July this year, marked a fundamental change in approach to simplify jury directions and reduce court delays.

“This new Bill is the next step in the reform process and will add a range of new provisions to the Jury Directions Act to address additional problematic jury directions.”

The provisions the Bill will add to the Jury Directions Act will simplify and clarify important directions on:
•what must be proved beyond reasonable doubt
•other misconduct evidence
•unreliable evidence
•identification evidence
•delay and forensic disadvantage
•delay and credibility, and
•failure to give evidence or call witnesses.

The Bill has been developed in consultation with a specialist Jury Directions Advisory Group that included high-level representatives from the Court of Appeal, County Court, Victorian Bar, the Office of Public Prosecutions, Judicial College of Victoria, Victoria Legal Aid and academics specialising in jury research.

A number of the directions reformed by the Bill were also examined in the Simplification of Jury Directions Project report produced in August 2012 by a team led by the Honourable Justice Weinberg of the Court of Appeal.

Mr Clark thanked the Jury Directions Advisory Group and Justice Weinberg and his team for their invaluable contributions to the reforms contained in the Bill.