Local Court Bench Book Update 149 published

Update 149, September 2023

The Local Court Bench Book is available in PDF or html.

Specific Penalties and Orders has been improved by utilising Lawcodes to generate penalties in almost all of the maximum penalty tables. For a list of Acts in Specific Penalties and Orders that are not populated by Lawcodes see Introduction. The following additional Acts have been included:

Specific penalties and orders has been updated as follows:

[2-000] Road Transport includes:

[18-000] Commonwealth offences:

[20-000] Bail is revised at [20-840] regarding the onus on an accused to satisfy bail provisions for Commonwealth child sex offences and to include reference to R v Weatherall [2023] NSWSC 710 regarding s 15AAA Crimes Act 1914.

[28-000] Committal proceedings is amended as follows:

  • Commissioner of Police v Walker [2023] NSWSC 539, BUSB v R (2011) 80 NSWLR 170 and HT v The Queen (2019) 269 CLR 403 at [28-080] in respect of restricted retention orders which restrains the defendant from retaining copies of parts of the brief of evidence
  • Charge certificates at [28-100] is revised and amended
  • Failure to file charge certificate at [28-100] includes Zahed v DPP [2023] NSWSC 368, which discusses s 68(2), (3) Criminal Procedure Act 1986 and consideration of the “interests of justice” test
  • Elwood v DPP [2023] NSWSC 772 and Landrey v DPP [2022] NSWCA 211 are included in Failing to fulfil case conference obligations at [28-120]
  • Hijazi v DPP [2022] NSWSC 1218 is included at [28-160] in respect of the importance of knowing what a defendant is pleading guilty and not guilty to.

[32-000] Small Claims includes reference to S Olischlager, “Guide to managing small claims hearings”, Local Court Webinar, 3 May 2023 on JIRS Program Materials at [32-160].

[44-000] Coronial Matters has an additional reference at [44-200] to Australian Coronial Law Library in Other Resources on JIRS.

The Index, Table of Cases and Table of Statutes have been updated to Update 149.