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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 2:38 am
Time: 2:38 am
Results for appellate court (australia)
1 results foundAuthor: Hudson, Nina Title: Sentencing Appeals in Victoria: Statistical Research Report Summary: The Court of Appeal plays a crucial role in sentencing in Victoria. It reviews sentences imposed by judges of the County Court and the Trial Division of the Supreme Court and determines whether an error has been made in the sentencing process. In giving its reasons for judgment, the Court of Appeal may also provide guidance to sentencing judges about the correct approach to sentencing. Despite the importance of sentence appeals, there is little published research in Victoria on the broader operation of sentence appeals and patterns of decision-making in sentence appeal cases heard by the Court of Appeal. A number of concerns have been expressed in recent years in relation to sentence appeals in Victoria. In 2009 the President of the Court of Appeal and in 2010 the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (which includes the Court of Appeal) respectively expressed concerns about what was then a large and growing backlog of criminal appeals in the Court of Appeal. Questions have also been raised about the number of Crown appeals against sentence as well as the principles that apply to such appeals. Other concerns raised relate to more substantive issues in sentence appeals, including errors found by the Court of Appeal to have been made in the sentencing process and resentencing outcomes in successful sentence appeals. At the same time a number of reforms have also been made to the laws governing sentence appeals and to the practices and procedures that apply to sentence appeals. One such reform has been the introduction of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (Vic), which has changed the law in relation to Crown and offender appeals. Another significant reform has been the introduction by the Supreme Court of an ‘intensive management’ model of criminal appeal cases based on the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The purpose of this reform is to reduce the backlog of criminal appeals and reduce delay in the hearing and determination of criminal appeals. Other changes to practice and procedure include the adoption of two-judge sentence appeal hearings (rather than a bench of three), the delivery of judgments on the same day as hearings where possible and more stringent monitoring of compliance with procedural timetables. The creation of a new Judge of Appeal position in 2009 has taken the number of Judges of Appeal from 11 to 12 (including the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the President of the Court of Appeal). An increase in the number of judges sitting as Judges of Appeal has also been facilitated by the constant sitting of at least two trial judges as acting Judges of Appeal. Pursuant to its statutory functions of providing statistical information on sentencing and conducting research and disseminating information on sentencing matters, the Sentencing Advisory Council (‘the Council’) has undertaken this project, which aims to describe and analyse data on sentence appeals in Victoria in the context of Victorian sentencing law and practice. The purpose of this report is to address the absence of data available on the operation of sentence appeals and to provide analysis to assist in continued discussions of the concerns that have been raised. Details: Melbourne, Victoria: Sentencing Advisory Council, 2012. 160p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 13, 2012 at https://sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/sites/sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/files/sentence_appeals_in_victoria_statistical_research_report.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Australia URL: https://sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/sites/sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/files/sentence_appeals_in_victoria_statistical_research_report.pdf Shelf Number: 124523 Keywords: Appellate Court (Australia)Sentencing (Australia) |