Judicial Commission of NSW Annual Report 2017-18

Judicial Commission of NSW — Annual Report 2017–18 34 Providing legal information Results, challenges and strategic direction in brief 31 publications to inform judicial officers about changes to the law, community values, court practice and procedure (last year 31): see p 38. Judicial officers and JIRS users were informed about changes to criminal law, procedure and sentencing through 9 updates to bench books (last year: 7): see p 38. 232 recent law news items published on JIRS to inform judicial officers about new legislation and significant cases (last year 238): see p 38. Information about sentencing options and rehabilitation facilities revised: see p 38. Judicial officers had access to current law on the Judicial Information Research System (JIRS) to assist in their day-to-day decision making. JIRS had 1.64 million page hits (1.5% growth): see p 40. Engaged with judicial officers through presentations about the use of JIRS and sentencing: see p 41. 7 enhancements were made to JIRS to ensure its currency, relevance and accuracy (last year 10): see p 42. Results 2017–18 Re-prioritising our research projects to accommodate the NSW State Government’s significant justice reform program. Keeping up to date with changes in the law, updating our loose-leaf services and online information in conjunction with the NSW Government’s extensive criminal justice reforms with limited resources. Updating the Local Court and Sentencing Bench Books to outline new committal procedures and compulsory case conferencing. Balancing core work with requests for sentencing information and advice from other criminal justice agencies. Challenges 2017–18 Strategic direction 2018–19 Publish information and update our loose-leaf and online services to advise judicial officers about sentencing law reforms (expected to commence in September 2018); reforms to child sexual assault laws following the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse and other reforms including forensic mental health law (expected to commence in December 2018). These reforms provide a significant challenge for us in terms of their breadth and timing given our limited resources and the extent to which they will require changes to our education programs, loose-leaf and online services. Develop and launch an automated way to generate scenarios from our loose-leaf services, using multi-media technology. Begin to review the current format of our loose-leaf services to assess their relevance for judicial officers. Continue to revise the systems we currently use to collect and disseminate sentencing statistics. Continue to publish information about changes to the law on the Judicial Information Research System (JIRS) and in our loose-leaf services. Implement new governance procedures underpinning the work of our volunteer committees. Photo previous page: Amanda Jamieson, Senior Research Officer (Legal), with Brandi Baylock, Research Officer (Statistics) help deliver the Legal Information program.