Indictable Offense

If you have ever been summoned for a criminal charge, it is likely that you have seen the words summary or indictable on your court attendance notice (often abbreviated to “CAN”). Whether your offence is labelled a summary offence or indictable offence will determine factors such as:

Common assault

Did you know that threatening someone, pushing them or spitting on them may expose a person to the possibility of 2 years imprisonment or $2200 fine?

Common assault is one of the most prosecuted criminal offences in the Local Courts. Why? It is one of the broadest criminal charges in NSW. Facts supporting an assault charge may also contain circumstances which attract an offence of actual bodily harm (ABH), grievous bodily harm (GBH) or may attract ‘aggravated assault’. It is not unusual for the police to run several of these charges at once.

Diversity of the profession

Australia has the same number of female and male solicitors. In fact, in 2018, there were more recorded female than male solicitors practicing in Australia. However, this statistic does not reveal the imbalance in the representation of classes across the legal profession. Not many in the legal profession truly know what it means to live below the poverty line or deal with the stressors in life which come with this.

Curtis Scott and Police misconduct

The principle that a defendant in a criminal trial is innocent until proven guilty is a fundamental common law right. It is also known as the ‘golden rule’ in Woolmington v DPP [1935] AC 462. In theory, this principal should protect alleged criminals from being judged without a formal hearing and from being subject to punishment, including via police conduct. Unfortunately for sporting stars whose reputation off-field is intrinsically linked with how the public perceive the sport, players accused of criminal offences are often pre-judged by the public and by their sport authority.