Hobart Magistrate Sam Mollard retires after 30 years on the bench

A Hobart magistrate retiring after three decades on the bench says he will miss the cut and thrust of the courtroom but won’t be looking back.

Magistrate Sam Mollard is retiring after 30 years as a magistrate in Tasmania. Picture: ZAK SIMMONDS

HOBART magistrate Sam Mollard this week presided over his final cases, retiring after 30 years doing a job he says was a perfect fit for him.

“The overwhelming feeling I think is how much I’ll miss the cut and thrust of the job and the personalities, not all — some I’ll be glad to see the rear end of — but the majority of people who regularly appear in my court I’ll miss; their personalities, their styles, and crossing swords with them,” Mr Mollard said, referring to the lawyers and defendants who have appeared before him.

“I had a defendant in front of me this week … who’s a real rogue. He’s done everything in the book short of murder, but he seems, at least temporarily to have turned over a new leaf and he’s become a thoroughly jovial and enjoyable chap to have in my courtroom.”

He puts that change down to the man recently becoming a father, but he says magistrates can and do play a role in the reform process.

LEGAL CALL ON FAMILY VIOLENCE COURT

He says he was recently approached by a man he had sentenced to a term of imprisonment. Expecting a punch in the nose, Mr Mollard was surprised when the man told him: “You have changed my life.”

He says the man genuinely wanted him to know the sentence had changed his attitude to drink driving.

“There have been other examples like that and I think that sometimes by being tough you’re being kind, not only to other people in the community but to the offenders themselves.”

Mr Mollard was inspired to pursue a career in law by two of his uncles, who were lawyers in Melbourne, where he grew up.

“I really wanted to be a farmer or a tuna fisherman and I’d been working full time as a commercial tuna fisherman and abalone diver on the south coast of New South Wales when I got a letter form a firm here [in Hobart] suggesting I might like to make an application for a job, and it was almost as accidental as that,” he said.

After he was appointed a magistrate in 1989, Mr Mollard found the job to be perfect for him.

“I enjoyed the view from the bench far more than I enjoyed the view from the bar table,” he said.

“If I had to sit down and design a job that would suit me, I don’t think I could do any better than the one that I’ve enjoyed for 30 years … it’s always interesting, there’s always something new.

“Even as recently as this week I said in court I thought I had seen everything but know that I haven’t because here is something new.”

One of the biggest changes Mr Mollard has seen in his career is the rise in drug-driven crime.

“For more than half my life I’ve been quietly promoting the concept of decriminalising drug offending,” he said.

“We’ve not only lost the battle, we’ve lost the war.

“Occasionally we get the big headline of so many tonnes of methamphetamine or other similar drugs caught on the waterfront but that’s not having any discernible impact on the rate of use and abuse in the community.”

He says drug use should be tackled as a health issue.

“I would use the success that we’ve had in terms of the tobacco issue where it’s been dealt with largely as a health battle as the appropriate equivalent.

“It’s time we dealt with it that way and I think that if we did we would see a significant drop-off in the drug-related crime that’s associated with it.”

Mr Mollard says he’ll miss the bench but he won’t look back.

“When I walk out of here I’ll have a strong feeling of regret, and this week I’ve had a greater feeling of regret every day that I’ve come to work, but when I walk out I won’t want to look back, I’ll be looking forward to the next phase of my life and things that I want to do in it.”