Author Talk PART 1 - Campsie Library 31/08/11

Courts 

In all of Australia's six states the heirachy of courts are Magistrate Court, District Court (County Court in some States) and Supreme Court.
The civil appellate procedure from Magistrate court is by way of a stated case to one Justice of the Supreme Court. Currently the jurisdictional limit is $60,000. 
From the District Court, one appeals to the Court of Appeal (three Justices of the Supreme Court). Current jurisdictional limit $1million. 
From a single justice of the Supreme court one appeals to three Justices (Court of Appeal).  Unhappy litigants can only try their luck by seeking Leave to Appeal to the High Court of Australia.   As any experienced legal practitioner will tell you, the success rate of Leave to Appeal are extremely low (5%).

In criminal matters the Magistrate Court is critically important.  Before I come to this critical importance I will mention the appellate procedure.  But for a committal hearing, an unhappy traffic offender faced with a loss of his or her drivers licence or a summarily decided misdemeanor can appeal a Magistrate (now called Judge) decision to a single Judge of the District Court.  Otherwise, criminal matters are tried (heard) before Judge and Jury.  Those criminal matters are referred to as indictable matters that would have been committed for trial by Magistrate.  Thus the importance of committal hearing in the Magistrate Court.  The District Court could sentence a convicted accused to life imprisonment.  The limit a Magistrate Court could sentence a convicted accused is two years.  A convicted accused can appeal from the Magistrate Court to a single Judge of the District Court.  Unhappy with the decision of a single Judge the convicted accused can appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal on the question of sentence.  

Like a Judge of the District Court, a Justice of the Supreme Court can sit on trials with  jury.  However trials before Justice and jury are limited to murder charges and matters of State or Federal security.  A Judge of the District Court, like Justice of the Supreme Court can sentence accused to life.

Costs

If you seek the advice or service of a Queens Counsel or what is now known as Senior Counsel you can expect to pay $8,000 plus GST per day, or $800 plus GST per hour.
Senior Junior Counsel with anything between ten plus years experience $4,000 - $5,000 plus GST per day or $600 - $700 per hour plus GST.
Of course a barrister can only appear for you or proffer advice only if he is briefed by a solicitor.  Depending upon seniority and experience solicitors hourly rates are anywhere between $300 to $750 per hour.
On top of all that you need to pay money upfront before any ear is given to your story or your version of events.

If one does believe he or she had a case and wants justice what chance does he or she has of retaining experienced legal practitioner? Nil or perhaps Legal Aid or no win no pay?
If one meets the income test and criminally charged perhaps Legal Aid can allocate you one of their lawyers.

In civil matters forget it.

What chance does a young wife with two children who lost her husband as a result of botched treatment and psychiatric assessment has of obtaining justice particularly when that justice also involves cornonial inquest and her opponent is a determined multinational insurer?  
This is precisely what the young wife faced in my book 'Observation Status'.

In Part 2,  I will talk about a forgotton section of the Crimes Act that was repealed in 2006