By Jimmy Singh & Tayla Regan In 2017, police have conducted about 112,000 roadside drug tests. This is expected to rise to about 200,000 each year from 2020. The relatively new drug driving laws have criminalised driving with the mere presence of illicit drugs in your saliva, urine or blood. Criminalising the mere presence of ...continue reading
By Jimmy Singh & Tayla Regan Jaywalking is generally where you cross the road in unsafe circumstances. Arguably, crossing a road against a red pedestrian light, or where there is no light, onto oncoming traffic (within 20 meters of a crossing) do so with full appreciation of the risks (which can result in serious consequences), ...continue reading
By Jimmy Singh & Tayla Regan Is it Illegal to Eat Food While Driving Your Car? You will be happy to know that eating your meal or drinking a coffee in the car while driving will not mean that you are breaking the law. Currently, there is no law in any Australian state or territory ...continue reading
By Jimmy Singh and Tayla Regan What is Bail? Where police charge you for a criminal offence, you become accused of an alleged offence. As a result, the Bail Act 2013 (NSW) is engaged, and a bail process starts. This means that, depending on the allegation or criminal charge, you will either be put into ...continue reading
By Jimmy Singh and Tayla Regan Say for instance you have been arrested for a crime, taken to the police station, and offered to participate in an interview with the police. Can you refuse to give an interview with police without your silence being used against you later? Can your silence amount to a consciousness ...continue reading
Where you encourage or assist in a crime, you will be seen and punished, under the law, as the same as the person(s) who actually committed the crime. This applies regardless of the fact that the crime committed was not the specific crime which was intended should be committed. This also applies even if you ...continue reading
NSW Police are often seizing mobile phones (and other items) from people suspected of crimes, including those that are bystanders, who record an incident which they are not even involved in. The digital era, with the regular use of smart phones, which allow people to record footage and photos wherever and whenever, has resulted in ...continue reading
73% of criminal cases result in the accused pleading guilty to serious criminal charges. 23% of people accused of a serious criminal offence are entering a guilty plea at a late stage of the case. Particularly on the day of trial in the District Court. For serious criminal cases, from when a case starts in ...continue reading
There are two types of main charges in NSW labelled as “indictable offences”, and “summary offences”. The period of time your case will take in court to finalise, whether police are still allowed to prosecute you for an offence that occurred more than 6 months ago, and the seriousness of the penalties you are faced ...continue reading
Evidence establishes that community supervision and programs are much more effective at changing offenders behaviour to reduce reoffending. In fact, sending offenders to prison for less than 2 years have not been effective in trying to change behaviour in offenders generally. A number of significant changes in NSW penalties have been proposed, and it will ...continue reading