Victorian Law Reform Commission calls for committal hearings to be scrapped
A suite of sweeping recommendations for Victoria’s justice system will reduce trauma for victims and calls for police to take a back seat in prosecuting more serious offences.
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Court committal hearings should be scrapped and replaced with a better system in an overhaul of the state’s legal system, according to Victoria’s law reform agency.
The Victorian Law Reform Commission has recommended abolishing committal hearings and replacing them with a streamlined process that would fast track justice and reduce trauma for victims.
Among a suite of sweeping recommendations the VLRC has called for the abolition of the committal test that requires magistrates to determine if accused people should stand trial.
The report found while there was a sound reason for the test, it was often unnecessary.
“The test should be abolished. The lower courts should, however, be empowered to discharge the accused on application by the defence, on the grounds that there is no reasonable prospect of conviction,” the VLRC said.
Instead magistrates would conduct vital pre-trial matters at a single “issues hearing” instead of a series of committal mention and committal hearings.
Serious matters that can only be heard in the Supreme Court, including murders and terrorism offences, would bypass the lower court altogether.
The VLRC, in a report tabled in parliament today, also wants Victoria’s Director of Public Prosecutions to take charge of more matters earlier, and for police to take a back seat in prosecuting indictable offences.
The DPP would also be forced to provide charging instructions to police before charges were laid following an investigation.
In cases that required a quick laying of charges, the DPP would be forced to review the charges within seven days of being provided a brief of evidence.
The move is to address a culture of “overcharging” with the VLRC finding there was a need to reduce the disparity between charges filed and ultimately prosecuted.
“In order to reduce disparity between charges initially filed and those ultimately prosecuted, the DPP should be involved in reviewing and instructing on the most appropriate charges in serious criminal matters at an earlier stage,” the report found.
“Earlier involvement of the OPP in advising investigating agencies on the most appropriate charges, and in reviewing at an early stage the charges filed by the investigating agency, would strengthen the separation of the police’s investigative functions from their role in prosecuting offences.
“The police’s prosecutorial role should be minimal in relation to indictable offences.”
A government spokesperson said the report would be carefullyconsidered ahead of consultation with stakeholders on the specific proposals.
Each year, approximately 3000 criminal case s go through some form of committal proceeding in Victorian magistrates courts.
Matt Cronin, who endured a committal hearing after his son Pat was the victim of a fatal coward punch attack, welcomed the recommendations.
“This is very good news for victims and a common sense way to improve the legal process in Victoria,” Mr Cronin said.
“From our perspective we found the committal process to be very much biased towards the defence with them using the committal hearing to delay justice being delivered,” he said.
“There should be no need to traumatise the victims and witnesses in the process and scrapping committals should assist with this.”
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