NSW Lawyer Struck Off and Prosecuted For Fraud
When applying to be admitted into the Australian legal profession, law graduates are required to undergo a character test to determine whether they are a “fit and proper person” to engage in legal practise. However, there are lawyers who -...
Politicians Should be Allowed to Criticise Judges, Argues Former High Court Justice
Former High Court Justice Dyson Heydon has written a searing critique of a hearing last year in the Victorian Court of Appeal (VCA), which determined whether to prosecute three federal ministers for contempt of court after they criticised the Victorian...
What Information Comes Up in a Criminal Record Check?
Many employees across Australia require a criminal record check before they are able to commence employment. And those who wish to travel to, or work in, certain overseas countries may also be required to obtain one. Criminal history checks are...
Buyers Beware: Non-Existent Tickets for Sale
A 33-year old man from Queensland has been charged with fraud after allegedly accepting online payments for tickets to singer Ed Sheeran’s recent concerts in Brisbane and Sydney, but never delivering them. The current charges relate to two complainants, with...
NSW Police Set to Harass Traffic Offenders at their Homes
New South Wales police officers will be randomly “visiting” the homes of traffic offenders as part of a strategy which police commissioner Mick Fuller claims is designed to deter them from reoffending. Knock knock, it’s police Mr Fuller has directed...
George Pell’s Committal Hearing: Some Sexual Assault Charges to be Dropped
Crown prosecutor Mark Gibson SC has foreshadowed that a number of criminal charges brought against Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic, will be formally withdrawn because the complainant they relate to is “medically unfit to give evidence”. It is expected...
New Police Watchdog Lacks the Funding to Investigate Complaints
The new NSW police watchdog has revealed that due to a lack of funding it’s had to forego monitoring a large number of already active critical incident investigations, as well as disregard more than fifty police integrity complaints. In a...
How Parking Fines Can Lead to Prison
One of our state’s leading law reform bodies is concerned that government-sanctioned fines are “disproportionately affecting” vulnerable people, and is calling for an end to the “vicious cycle” of debt and unfair disadvantage for the poor. A report by the...
Mentally Ill Disproportionately Killed by Police
Recently released statistics suggest that more than half of the people shot dead by NSW police over the past twenty years were suffering from a mental illness. The data was obtained by Greens MP David Shoebridge through the Government Information...
Court Security Screening of Lawyers is Unwarranted
In late February, NSW Bar Association president Arthur Moses SC called a meeting with the head of the Office of the Sheriff of New South Wales, Tracey Hall, to discuss the ongoing frustrations of lawyers who are subjected to time-consuming...
