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Criminal Law Matters

Changes to roadside random drug and alcohol testing in NSW

Please note this article only relates to drink driving and driving with a prescribed restricted substance in your oral fluid. What has changed? From 1st September 2024, there have been several major changes in New South Wales about how roadside drug and alcohol testing is conducted. Roadside Drug…

Criminal Infringement Notices and Drug Possession in NSW

What is a Criminal Infringement Notice (CIN) in New South Wales? A CIN is an alternative option available to NSW Police instead of sending you to Court. You must satisfy certain requirements such as being an adult, not continuing to commit the offence or being too intoxicated to…

Terrigal Night Out Gone Wrong: Three Co-Offenders Let Off Without Conviction

Our Mr Francis Caesar Devine, Associate, represented three young co-defendants charged with possessing small quantities of cocaine on a night out in Terrigal. Each of them pleaded guilty and were sentenced in the Local Court at Gosford. Mr Devine put together strong subjective cases on behalf of each…

Murder charge dropped in Victorian cold case

Manny Conditsis, Senior Trial Advocate and Accredited Specialist in Criminal Law, assisted by Kayla Nielsen lawyer, achieved another extraordinary result in the Victorian cold case murder charge of Peter Wetzler. In September 2023, Mr Wetzler was arrested at his Newcastle home and charged with the murder of Debra…

Client charged with supply large commercial quantity of MDMA granted bail 

Michal Mantaj, Trial Advocate and Accredited Specialist in Criminal Law, recently appeared for a client charged with supplying a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug, namely MDMA. It is very unusual for an individual charged with supplying a commercial quantity of drugs to be granted bail as…

Dangerous Driving & Police Pursuit Charges Withdrawn & Dismissed

Last week Michal Mantaj, Accredited Specialist in Criminal Law & Trial Advocate, appeared for a young man charged with taking part in a police pursuit. On conviction, the offence attracts a maximum penalty of imprisonment for a period of three (3) years and an automatic disqualification of a…

Serious criminal charges against a minor dismissed

Manny Conditsis, Senior Trial Advocate and Accredited Specialist in Criminal Law, and Francis Caesar Devine, Associate, achieved a phenomenal result for their client in a judge and jury trial at Gosford District Court last week. The trial began on Monday last week in relation to a number of…

Jennifer Crumbley convicted of 4 counts of involuntary manslaughter in the USA

What is Involuntary Manslaughter? There are two types of involuntary manslaughter in the USA [can vary as between states]: 1. Unintentional homicide – act(s) committed that amount to criminal negligence. Example 1– an ad hoc supposed health professional providing ‘care’ to someone that was so negligent that caused…

Client charged with murder granted bail at the Victorian Supreme Court

On 6 September 2023 our client was charged with murdering his fiancee almost 40 years ago in Victoria, and Victorian police applied for his extradition and for him to be remanded in custody. Senior Trial Advocate Manny Conditsis successfully resisted the extradition on the basis that the case…

Client charged with 12 counts of sexual abuse found not guilty.

Recently, Michal Mantaj, one of the trial advocates from our criminal defence team, successfully represented a client who was charged with 12 offences related to allegations that he sexually abused his stepdaughter and another female family member. Our client maintained his innocence and entered pleas of not guilty…

No Criminal Record, Licence Disqualification or Fine for Dangerous Driving

Criminal Law Solicitor, Ms Kayla Nielsen, has successfully persuaded Toronto Local Court to discharge a client from criminal charges on mental health grounds. Our client was charged with Dangerous Driving and reported that, at the time of driving, he had an episode of extreme anxiety and panic. It…

Christian Porter | Populist Opinion v Procedural Fairness & Justice

  Popular Opinion Where there is smoke there is fire [2020 Four Corners Program as to recent and historical inappropriate behaviour of Christian Porter] as well as the more recent allegations of sexual assault dating back to 1988 [33 years ago]. Irrespective of Police confirmation of its own…

Criminalisation of coercive control

This is a hot topic at present and rightly so. There needs to be and should be significant community discussion and education to do the subject justice. Is coercive control a form of domestic violence or abuse and should it be criminalised? The overwhelming answer is Yes! It…

Do you have teenage children? You need to read this!

Did you know that it is a criminal offence to have consensual sex or any form of consensual sexual touching when one or both are under the age of 16 years? Example 1: the boy is 16 ½ and the girl is 15 ½ – it is a…

Hung Juries in Sexual Assault Trials

What does a hung Jury mean? In Australia, for an accused to either be found guilty or not guilty of a crime in a jury trial, the starting point is that the jury decision must be unanimous. However, after jury deliberations of about 8 hours or so, the…

New domestic violence laws bad news for unrepresented defendants

A new law recently passed by the NSW parliament is going to make it even more difficult for defendants who cannot afford a lawyer to defend themselves. The law is part of a suite of reforms aimed at making it easier for complainants (alleged victims) in domestic violence…

Criminal Law Matters: Issue 7

CAN I GET A LICENCE JUST FOR WORK? CAN I GET A WORK LICENCE? I HAVE BEEN TOLD YOU CAN GET A LICENCE JUST TO GO TO AND FROM WORK  No! No! No! Not in NSW!! NOOOOO!   I remain fascinated by the fact that every client for…

Criminal Law Matters: Issue 6

Dory: A friend of mine, her name’s Sigourney, once told me that all it takes is three simple steps: Rescue, rehabilitation, and um… one other thing? Group of Cheering Fish: Release!  Be very careful when entering a plea of ‘guilty’ to a criminal offence. You do not have…

Criminal Law Matters: Issue 5

The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail — its roof may shake — the wind may blow through it — the storm may enter — the rain may enter — but the King of England…

Criminal Law Matters: Issue 4

I recently was waiting at the Local Court in the Downing Centre for my client’s matter to be heard. The majority of the cases before the Court were offences of violence. One man who described himself as having ‘a strong moral compass’ and particularly a dislike for ‘littering’…

Criminal Law Matters: Issue 3

‘Deemed supply’ is a tricky legal concept. If you have over the trafficable amount of a drug (as per the schedule to the relevant legislation, the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act) then it is ‘deemed’ that you have the drug for the purpose of supply. The Prosecution must…

Criminal Law Matters: Issue 2

After many years representing people who are brought before courts in NSW, the events that bring people to court still surprise me. You may have heard of Strike Force Raptor, a section of the NSW police force which investigates Outlaw Motorcycle gangs. Such police are given a lot…

Criminal Law Matters: Issue 1

Most people now know that you cannot drive a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol. However it is not just a motor vehicle which you cannot ‘drive’. ‘Vehicle’ has a much more extended definition under the Road Transport legislation in NSW than one would think. See the…