Court of Appeal – Criminal Reforms
Newsletter No 2 – March 2012
No 2 - March 2012 | Mark Pedley, Judicial
Registrar
Justice Ashley retires and Justice
Osborn is appointed
Law Institute, CDPP and VGRS have been
received and are being considered.
Justice Ashley retired from the Court on 2
February 2012 after 6½ years as an Appeal
Judge and 15 years as a Trial Division Judge.
Justice Osborn was appointed to the Court of
Appeal on 7 February 2012 and will
commence sitting in the Court of Appeal from
mid-March 2012. Attached below is an
internet link to Justice Ashley’s farewell
speeches:
Term 2 roster (16 April–29 June)
http://www.supremecourt.vic.gov.au/home/library/s
upreme+-+farewell+ceremony+justice+ashley
Updated Statistics
February was very busy for the Court with 47
criminal appeals heard in the month. At the
end of February 2012 there were 262 pending
criminal applications/appeals in the list.
53.4% of these are sentence only matters,
24.8% are conviction and sentence matters
and 13.4% are conviction only matters. The
other 8.4% of the list are made up of
DPP/CDPP appeals, interlocutory appeals
and cases stated.
Out
of
the
262
pending
criminal
applications/appeals, 143 (54.6%) are at the
appeal stage and 119 (45.4%) have not yet
been through the leave stage. 71 of the 119
at the leave stage have a leave date, this
includes elections/renewals or where the
leave application is listed in conjunction with
the appeal hearing, if leave is granted. The
remaining 48 applications have not yet been
listed for a leave hearing.
Practice and Procedure Updates
Review of Practice Direction
The Practice Direction (No 2 of 2011) is being
reviewed. Comments from VLA, OPP, the Bar,
The term 2 roster has been finalised and
circulated. There will be a circuit to Geelong
between 29–31 May.
Grounds of Appeal that will be rejected
Following consultation with the bench, the
Registry will reject a written case where a
ground stated is in actuality a particular of
another ground. The primary example of this
arises when a “ground” contends that a
particular sentencing factor was not given its
appropriate weight.
Most often such a
“ground” is really a particular of manifest
excess and, per DPP (Vic) v Terrick (2009) 24
VR 457, should not appear as a separate
ground in a written case.
Provision of unrevised transcripts
Once an application for leave to appeal is
filed, the Registry obtains the relevant
transcript as detailed in section 6 of the
Practice Direction. Unless the transcript has
been revised the transcript provided will be
unrevised transcript. This is so now for both
Supreme Court and County Court transcript.
Video Links and Gaol Orders
Applicants are required to confirm request for
a gaol order or video-link following notification
of the listing of leave (oral) and full appeal
hearings.
All gaol order and video-link requests must be
made in writing, preferably via email to
coaregistry@supremecourt.vic.gov.au, by the
date noted in the notification of listing
correspondence. A request to attend will not
be entertained after that time.
Court of Appeal Reference Group (Newsletter No 2 – March 2012)
Supreme Court of Victoria
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Registrar’s Neutral Summaries
For term 2 appeals (from 16 April), the
Registrar has decided to make the following
changes to the format of neutral summaries
prepared for the Court by the Registry
lawyers:
•
•
Sentence Appeals – these summaries will
list the appeal grounds and summarise the
sentencing reasons rather than the facts.
Experience has shown that the facts are
adequately summarised in the applicant's
written case and crown response and the
sentencing reasons.
Filing multiple documents electronically
This is a reminder for all parties who file
multiple documents in the one e-mail. If, for
example, you are filing a notice of appeal and
a written case in the one e-mail, please
separate them into two different attachments.
The reason for this is that the Registry must
attach them separately to our case
management system.
Simplification of Jury Directions
The Chief Justice and the President have
decided that the Court should more directly
assist the work being done to simplify jury
Conviction Appeals – these summaries will directions. Justice Weinberg will be leading
list the grounds having leave, provide a the next phase of that project from mid-April to
summary of the prosecution case, the mid-June and so will not sit during that time.
defence case, the evidence, rulings and
Courtroom Upgrades
directions.
The Registrar has also decided that the
parties will not be expected to agree on the
contents of the summary as this has resulted
in delay in forwarding summaries to the
bench. Rather, the Registar's summary will
be provided to the parties in the expectation
that the parties will promptly bring any factual
errors to the Registry’s attention.
Crown appeals where the applicant is not
in custody
Parties are reminded that respondents to
Crown appeals who are not in custody are
expected to attend the appeal hearing and
the judgment of the Court.
Leave and Election (Oral) Hearings
Please note that, subject to contrary direction
by the Court, if an oral hearing has been
requested for a leave application or
renewal/election, oral argument will be limited
in the case of the Applicant to 15 minutes and
in the case of the Crown (if appearing) to 10
minutes in accordance with s 11(7) and
s 13(6) of the Practice Direction.
Since December 2011, the Registrar has been
directing that the parties file a separate list of
authorities under the headings A - authorities
that establish a point of principle and which
will be read from in any hearing; and B authorities relied on for any other reason (eg
comparative sentencing). It is expected this
will be incorporated into the Practice Direction.
The Registry is now including in the appeal
books only the authorities under the A
heading as the experience was that many
cases were cited in the written cases and
copied by the Registry which the court was
not taken to at the hearing.
In late February, the Court of Appeal received
significant upgrades to the computers in the
three courtrooms. As a result, documents that
the Associate can access electronically (for
example, authorities) will now be able to be
displayed on the Judges’ monitors.
Over the next few weeks the Judges and
Associates will be familiarising themselves
with this new capacity.
Court of Appeal Reference Group (Newsletter No 2 – March 2012)
Supreme Court of Victoria
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