Lawyers Struck Off for Professional Misconduct
Lawyers, like most professionals, have to abide by certain codes of conduct. If they act in a way that is considered unprofessional or that contravenes professional guidelines, they can end up facing disciplinary action and potentially even losing their licence...
Why Do Innocent People Confess to Crimes they Never Committed?
Police love confessions, because it often makes their job so much easier, especially if there is no strong evidence to prove that the suspect committed the crime. A confession is often considered to be rock-solid evidence, but should it be?...
Celebrity No Barrier to Charges of Negligent Driving in NSW
Being a celebrity is no barrier to falling foul of traffic laws, as football commentator Mark Bosnich recently discovered. An alleged incident involving a cyclist has led to Bosnich being charged with driving at a speed or manner dangerous, and...
Juvenile Killers of Janine Balding – Should they ever be released?
The imprisonment of two teenage convicted killers for life has been ruled inhumane and a contravention of human rights by the United Nations. The two were sentenced to life imprisonment for the abduction, rape and murder of Janine Balding in...
Is a Positive Indication by a Sniffer Dog Enough for Police to Search You? Part 2: Applying Empirical Data
In Part 1 of this series, we outlined the law relating to ‘reasonable suspicion’. To re-cap, the law says that police can only search you for drugs if they have a ‘suspicion on reasonable grounds’ that you have drugs on...
New Justice Appointed to High Court of Australia
A few weeks ago we reported that two current High Court Justices, Susan Crennan and Kenneth Hayne, will be due to retire next year when they reach the age of 70. Their imminent departure sparked discussion within the legal profession...
Is a Positive Indication by a Sniffer Dog Enough for Police to Search You? Part 1: “Reasonable Suspicion”
We have posted numerous articles and videos about the fact that police cannot undertake random or arbitrary searches upon people - they must have a ‘suspicion on reasonable grounds’ before performing a search. This two-part blog aims to answer the...
UN Finds Australian Government Guilty of Human Rights Abuses
Prisoners being sedated, tied to chairs and subjected to physical abuse - it sounds like something out of Guantanamo Bay, but in reality these horrific activities occur much closer to home. Earlier this week, the United Nations Human Rights Commission...
Drug Detection Dogs Reportedly Providing False Leads
It has been revealed that the majority of strip searches by police based on indications from drug detection dogs do not result in any drugs being found. Government data obtained by the NSW Greens and reported in the media reveals...
Why Have Female Arrest Rates Increased in Recent Years?
According to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR), adult female arrest rates are on the increase. The number of adult female persons of interest in criminal cases in NSW over the last decade has increased by an...
