Equality before the Law Bench Book
Providing for community and individual difference in court proceedings
The Equality before the Law Bench Book provides NSW judicial officers with:
- statistics and information about the different values, cultures, lifestyles, socioeconomic disadvantage and/or potential barriers in relation to full and equitable participation in court proceedings for nine different groups of people.
- guidance about how judicial officers might need to take account of this information in court — from the start to the conclusion of court proceedings. It provides guidance only and is not meant to be in any way prescriptive.
The Equality before the Law Bench Book is available to download as a complete PDF document or as individual sections.
Equality before the Law Bench Book — Complete document (pdf 1.8 MB)
- Preliminary pages (pdf 640 KB)
- Section 1 — Equality before the law (pdf 106 KB)
- Section 2 — Indigenous people (pdf 388 KB)
- Section 3 — People from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (pdf 401 KB)
- Section 4 — People with a particular religious affiliation (pdf 209 KB)
- Section 5 — People with disabilities (pdf 213 KB)
- Section 6 — Children and young people (pdf 288 KB)
- Section 7 — Women (pdf 168 KB)
- Section 8 — Lesbians, gay men and bisexuals (pdf 141 KB)
- Section 9 — People whose gender identity may be an issue (pdf 162 KB)
- Section 10 — Self-represented parties (pdf 180 KB)
- Section 11 — Your comments (pdf 13 KB)
- Index and Tables (pdf 86KB)
To view the PDF files you will need to have a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have a copy of this program, select the 'Get Acrobat Reader' button.
