Reforms to tackle criminal court delays and reduce appeals

Attorney-General Robert Clark today introduced legislation into Parliament to further reduce court delays, including simplifying sentencing laws and reducing sentencing appeals.

“The Victorian Coalition Government inherited a criminal justice system with the longest waiting lists in Australia, due to the bungles and inaction of the former Labor government.

“The reforms we have introduced today are another step in giving courts greater flexibility, eliminating technicalities, and tackling delays,” Mr Clark said.

The legislation will reduce the number of appeals coming before the Court of Appeal by allowing a single judge to refuse leave to appeal against a sentence where there is no reasonable prospect of the offender’s total sentence being reduced.

At present, the law requires the court to allow such an appeal to be heard if there may be an error in one of the sentences that makes up the total sentence, even though fixing the alleged error would make no difference to the total sentence imposed on the offender by the trial judge. Under the amendments, a single Court of Appeal judge will be able to fix any such error in an individual sentence without the case having to go to a full appeal.

“This amendment will avoid court resources being tied up unnecessarily in a full appeal when there is no reasonable prospect of the court reducing the overall sentence,” Mr Clark said.

The legislation will also simplify the law allowing a trial judge to impose a single aggregate sentence where two or more separate offences are based on the same facts or form part of a series of similar offences.

Under the changes, the trial judge will no longer have to say what individual sentences the judge would have imposed for each separate offence. This will enable judges to give a single, clear and straightforward sentence for the offences as a whole, sending a stronger message to offenders and reducing the risk of technical appeal points.

Further amendments will give the courts more scope to arrange special hearings for children and cognitively impaired complainants to give evidence in sexual offence trials. These special hearings allow children and cognitively impaired complainants to give their evidence in a separate room away from the courtroom and without having to see the accused.

At present, these special hearings are required to be recorded in advance of the trial, and then played to the jury during the trial. The reforms will give the courts the flexibility to hold special hearings during the trial if it is in the interests of justice to do so, having regard to the needs of the complainant and other relevant factors. Clear criteria will also be specified in the legislation for when the court can give an extension of time for the holding of special hearings.

Other reforms in the Bill will expand the range of offences for which the evidence in chief of children and cognitively impaired witnesses can be pre-recorded, to include child pornography offences. Evidence that has been re-recorded will then also be able to be used in other related proceedings, such as victim compensation hearings. This will reduce the number of times vulnerable witnesses are required to give their evidence.

A further reform in the Bill will simplify cumbersome warrant procedures. Currently, once police have executed a search warrant for stolen or illegal items, they must physically bring the items seized before a magistrate at a Magistrates Court. The items are usually immediately returned to the possession of the police.

Under the reform, police will be able to provide a photograph of the item to the magistrate, together with a sworn statement of where the item is held, without having to take the item to court. This process already applies for bulky items, and the change will apply it for all seized items.

“This will slash the time police are currently being forced to waste in taking items seized under a warrant to a Magistrates’ Court, showing the items to a magistrate, and then taking the items back again to the police station,” Mr Clark said.

“This common sense reform will free up police time to help keep the community safe, instead of being tied up in needless red tape.”