Our 45 year old client from Oakhurst came to our CDLA office seeking legal advice after being charged with domestic violence assault occasioning actual bodily harm, common assault and an Apprehended Domestic Violence Order (ADVO).
Our client met with our managing senior lawyer Tayla Regan who thoroughly reviewed her case and immediately pointed out significant the weaknesses, holes and inconsistencies in the police evidence.
Our Tayla immediately commenced negotiations with police seeking to get the more serious charge of actual bodily harm withdrawn and dismissed early on the basis of pleading guilty to the less serious charge of common assault given our client wanted to simply get the matter finalised as quickly as possible without having to continue going to court.
Following negotiations with police, our Tayla successfully convinced police to drop the more serious charge of actual bodily harm on the terms we offered. This meant that our client was in a much better position to avoid a criminal record even after pleading guilty to the less serious charge of common assault.
Following this, the police set of facts were also negotiated to shed our client in a much better light to reflect what really happened. This places our client in an even better position than earlier.
We appeared with our client at the Mt Druitt Local Court in early March 2022, and plead guilty to one charge of common assault on a set of negotiated facts that were more favourable to our client.
After the Magistrate read the negotiated and amended set of agreed facts on the sentence, Tayla gave compelling submissions together with strong subjective evidence in favour of our client to show our client’s remorse, good character, and circumstances of the offence.
Ultimately, the Magistrate was convinced to not convict our client. Instead, the Magistrate agreed with our Tayla to impose a non-conviction order with a 9 month good behaviour bond under a conditional release order with no fine.
Our client was extremely happy with this outcome. He walked away without having a criminal record against his name.