Substantial changes to committal procedure in the Local Court.
Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act 1986, pursuant to the Justice Legislation Amendment (Committals and Guilty Pleas) Act 2017, commenced on 30 April 2018, with consequent amendments to the applicable Regulations. These amendments substantially change the procedure for committals by mandating early charge negotiations and encouraging early pleas of guilty.
In summary, the new procedure is:
- Following charge in indictable matters, the police will provide a simplified brief of evidence to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), which does not have to be in admissible form and is to include evidence relevant to the defence case.
- Existing prosecution disclosure obligations are unchanged and unaffected by the amendments.
- A senior prosecutor in the ODPP will review the brief and file a Charge Certificate with the Local Court confirming the charges which will proceed and certifying that evidence is held to support those charges.
- The Charge Certificate must be filed within 6 months, or a magistrate may discharge the accused.
- The prosecutor and defence lawyer must then have a case conference, in person or by audio visual link (not by phone), to determine if any pleas of guilty can be entered and to identify/attempt to resolve any issues.
- Parties then complete and file a Case Conference Certificate at court.
- Existing provisions for applications to have prosecution witnesses attend to give evidence at committal proceedings are unchanged, although now contained in different sections of the Act.
- Magistrates are no longer required to assess the evidence and determine whether an accused should be committed; they are only required to confirm that the Charge Certificate and Case Conference Certificate have been filed, determine any application for witnesses to attend, if so take that evidence, then commit the accused for trial (if plea not guilty or no plea entered,) or for sentence (if plea guilty).
- Both committal hearings and ‘paper’ committals are accordingly abolished.
- There are some exceptions to the compulsory case conference – where the accused is unrepresented, or ‘fitness to be tried’ is in issue.
- Magistrates can now also commit cases on the issue of ‘fitness to be tried’.
The Commentary and Precedents in the By Lawyers NSW Criminal Local Court Guide have been updated to cover the new procedure.