Early Appropriate Guilty Plea Reforms

Early Appropriate Guilty Plea Reforms 

The Reforms 
From 30  April 2018, the Justice Amendment (Committals and Guilty Pleas) legislation  has changed  the way in which the Courts, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (“DPP”), the New South Wales Police and Defence Lawyers handle committal matters. 

In fact, the legislation drastically changes the definition of the legal term “committal”. The new definition of committal is as follows: “proceedings before a Magistrate for the purpose of committing a person charged with an indictable offence for trial or sentence.”

If you are issued with a court attendance notice for an indictable offence post 30 April 2018 your case will fall under the unbrella of the new legislation even if your offence occurred pre 30th April 2018. This change affects both adults and serious children’s indictable offences. If you were issued with a court attendance notice before 30 April 2018 these changes will not effect your matter.

The Previous System 
The previous system was one where a Magistrate conducted  an inquiry into the evidence against an offender. After considering the brief of evidence and hearing the submissions of both the DPP and defence the Magistrate decided whether there was enough evidence for the matter to be committed to the District Court. 
 
The Aims of the Reforms
 The Second Reading Speech of Attorney General Mark Speakman outlines that the changes are  to address the substantial backlog of trials in the District Court by aiming to reduce the significant delays in finalising indictable criminal cases. In some cases those delays can mean at least 24 months in custody on remand before the trial date.

The Law Reform Commission found that 73 percent of indictable criminal cases end with the defendant pleading guilty. However, 23 percent of guilty pleas are not entered until the day of trial. Late guilty pleas are seen as the root cause for the delay in the District Court.

The New Procedures
The new procedures require the prosecutor to disclose a brief of evidence to the accused person and to certify the charges to be proceeded with. The new committal proceedings will also provide for a formal conferencing procedure to enable opportunities for appropriate early guilty pleas to be considered during committal proceedings. In this new area,  the Magistrate oversees the progress of the matter and ensures that the matter is moving forward efficiently.

Charge Certification 
The pre-30 April 2018 system allowed the prosecutor to change the charges against our clients at any time including up to the first date of the trial. The purpose of charge certification is to provide earlier charge certainly to encourage earlier guilty pleas if they are appropriate. The second purpose is also to invoice senior prosecutors from the ODPP who will remain  in the matter until its finalisation. Having a senior prosecutor involved in the committal stage will assist in negotiating a plea to an appropriate charge.  

Charge Certification under the reforms refers to a senior prosecutor certifying that the evidence available to the prosecutor is capable of establishing the offences currently charged. The prosecutor will also have to issue requests to the NSW Police for completion of the brief.  

Case Conferencing
Once the Charge Certificate is filed by the Prosecutor the next stage is Case Conferencing. The primary purpose of case conferencing is to determine whether there are any offences to which the accused person is willing to plead guilty. The secondary purposes are aimed at reducing court time by the provision of additional material or other information which will enable an accused person to decide to plead guilty or not guilty. The case conferencing is also aimed at identifying the key issues in dispute. The accused person is required to be in attendance of the case conference and the conference will occur in person or via audio visual link.  
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