AGY-1073 | District Court Criminal Jurisdiction

Full description

The District Court, established on 1 July 1973 under the District Court Act, 1973 (Act No 9 1973) was the intermediate civil and criminal Court in New South Wales. (1) The first sitting day of the Criminal jurisdiction of the District Court was 2 July 1973. (2)

The District Court was the intermediate criminal Court in New South Wales and dealt with most of the serious criminal cases that came before the courts in New South Wales. The District Court had responsibility for indictable criminal offences, that was, serious criminal offences which were normally heard by a Judge and Jury but on occasions by a Judge alone. The District Court, however, did not deal the crimes of treason, piracy and murder.

Under the Victims Compensation Act, 1987 (Act No.237, 1987) a victim of a violent crime had a right of appeal to the District Court against a determination by the Victims Compensation Tribunal. "The Court of Appeal has said that the District Court ordinarily should finally determine an appeal rather than remitting it to the Victims Compensation Tribunal for further consideration. The orders of the District Court in a s. 29 appeal may be quashed by the Court of Appeal where the District Court exceeded its jurisdiction or made an error of law which is not purely peripheral but more central to the case". (3)

The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Procedure) Act 1997 Act introduced a number of procedural reforms and made the following amendments to the Crimes Act 1900 - vesting power in a judge in the course of a trial to accept a plea of guilty without the involvement of a jury and inserting a new s.405, which provides the defence with the option of making an opening address immediately after the Crown's opening address. (4)

Changes to the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 involved vesting power in Chief Justice of the Supreme Court being to issue a practice note directing that certain classes of indictments are to be presented in the District Court, rather than the Supreme Court and inserting s.19, which provides both the Supreme Court and the District Court with clear authority to conduct trial proceedings after the presentation of the indictment and before the jury is empanelled for the trial. The Court may make orders in connection with the proceedings at this time. This reform permitted the trial proper to start without the jury being empanelled.

Endnotes
1. The District Court Act, 1973 commenced on 1 July 1973 NSW Government Gazette, 8 June 1973, p. 2158.
2. Ibid.
3. Glenn Bartley ' Departments - Victims Compensation: Victims compensation appeals' Law Society Journal (NSW, Australia), June 1995, p.32. Cite as (1995) 33 (5) LSJ 32.
4. Crimes Legislation Amendment (Procedure) Act 1997 received assent on 30 September 1997 and commenced on 4 January 1998.