Inbrief

Members are advised that, although the Bar Association is regularly updating the COVID-19 page of its website as information comes to hand please refer to the latest court resources directly as developments are changing quickly at this time. Do not make any assumptions regarding your case without first doing so. Links to the various court and tribunal pages are provided in the body of the guide.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. (Any difficulties registering, please contact emily.graham@chambers.net.au )

All enquiries will be dealt with in the strictest confidence and can be directed to the Clerk.

Application to Vary Bail

On and from 2 August 2021 to 28 August 2021 at:

• The Downing Centre;

• John Maddison Tower;

• Campbelltown;

• Gosford;

• Katoomba;

• Parramatta;

• Penrith; and

• Wollongong.

all applications to vary bail will be dealt with by a Judge in chambers except in compelling cases. Personal appearances will not be permitted at any time.

In a compelling case where a hearing is required, the application will be heard electronically by using the Virtual Courtroom.

Before making an application to vary bail, the defendant must notify the prosecution of the bail condition(s) that is sought to be varied and the prosecution must notify the defendant whether it consents to the application.

All emails to an associate of a Judge concerning a bail application must be copied to the other party in the proceedings.

Consent Application to Vary Bail

An application to vary bail made by a defendant to which the prosecution consents must comply with the following:

1. The defendant is to email the associate of the List Judge or the Resident Judge of the relevant District Court:

(a) a copy of the current bail condition(s);

(b) the bail condition(s) that are to be varied by consent;

(c) the agreed terms of the bail condition(s) that have been consented to by the prosecution; and

(d) the reasons the defendant seeks the bail variation.

2. Where there is a surety to the defendant’s bail, a separate email from the surety must be sent to the associate of the Judge in which the surety details the bail condition(s) that are to be varied and the surety agrees to the proposed variation of bail.

3. The prosecution is to email the associate of the Judge:

(a) the bail condition(s) that are to be varied by consent; and

(b) the agreed terms of the bail condition(s) that have been consented to by the prosecution.

4. The Judge may require further information from the parties before making a bail decision.

5. The associate of the Judge will notify the parties if and when the orders varying bail have been made. These orders will be entered into JusticeLink by the associate immediately.

Opposed Application to Vary Bail

1. An application to vary bail condition(s) made by a defendant to which the prosecution does not consent must comply with the following:

2. The defendant is to email the associate of the List Judge or the Resident Judge of the relevant District Court:

(a) a copy of the current bail condition(s);

(b) the bail condition(s) that the defendant seeks to vary;

(c) the proposed terms of the bail condition(s) that is to be varied; and

(d) the reasons the defendant seeks the bail variation.

3. Where there is a surety to the defendant’s bail, a separate email from the surety must be sent to the associate of the Judge in which the surety details the bail condition(s) that the defendant seeks to vary and the surety agrees to the proposed variation of bail.

4. The prosecution is to email the associate of the Judge:

(a) the bail condition(s) the defendant seeks to vary that is not consented to by the prosecution; and

(b) the reasons the prosecution opposes the bail variation.

5. The Judge may require further information from the parties before making a bail decision.

6. Where the Judge is unable to reach a bail decision on the information that has been provided by the parties, the Judge may decide that the application is a compelling case and must be heard electronically by the use of the Virtual Courtroom. The associate to the Judge will provide directions to the parties as to how and when the Virtual Courtroom hearing is to take place.

Virtual Courtroom Practitioner Guide

Practitioners are asked to familiarise themselves with the Virtual Courtroom by reading the Virtual Courtroom Guide which can be located on the District Court website.

The webinar is open to NSW Bar Association members and will be run by registration only. Numbers are limited.

For ILS Members, click here to register for the webinar.

If you are not currently a member of the ILS, and wish to join, please click here.

Registered attendees will receive a further email with the Zoom link before the event.

For further information, or to register for this event, please click here.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. (Any difficulties registering, please contact emily.graham@chambers.net.au )

Further information regarding this appointment is available on the ACT Justice and Community Safety Directorate’s website here.

Expressions of interest close on 29 August 2021. General enquiries should be directed to Mr Richard Glenn, Director-General of the Justice and Community Safety Directorate on (02) 6207 0501 or by email at judicialappointment@act.gov.au

• Today’s COVID-19 Update from the District Court of NSW; and

• Today's announcement from the Local Court of NSW regarding the standard email for appearances during the current COVID-19 Lockdown.

Members are advised that, although the Bar Association is regularly updating the COVID-19 page of its website as information comes to hand please refer to the latest court resources directly as developments are changing quickly at this time. Do not make any assumptions regarding your case without first doing so. Links to the various court and tribunal pages are provided in the body of the guide.

The Chief Magistrate's Office have advised that it would also greatly assist the Court if practitioners could contain their emails to 1-2 paragraphs.

To assist the Court to manage the large volume of emails, the Court has also advised that, where practitioners fail to provide the email to the Registry by 3.00pm the day prior to listing, the matter will be marked as no appearance and dealt with accordingly.

The standard email for appearances can be found here.

About the Speakers:

Dr Tyson Yunkaporta is an academic, an arts critic, and a researcher who is a member of the Apalech Clan in far north Queensland. He carves traditional tools and weapons and also works as a senior lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges at Deakin University in Melbourne. Author of Sand Talk, Dr Tyson Yunkaporta looks at global systems from a unique perspective, one tied to the natural and spiritual world. In considering how contemporary life diverges from the pattern of creation, he yarns with people, looking for ways to connect images and stories with place and relationship to create a coherent world view, and he uses sand talk, the Aboriginal custom of drawing images on the ground to convey knowledge. In Sand Talk, he provides a new model for our everyday lives. It’s about how we learn and how we remember. It’s about talking to everyone and listening carefully. It’s about finding different ways to look at things.

Ms Karlie Noon is a Gamilaraay woman who was born and raised in Tamworth, NSW. She grew up with very little interest in school but a big interest in mathematics. For Karlie, her maths journey started when she was 8 when she began playing maths games with an older Aboriginal lady who was a close family friend. Little did anyone know she would be the first Aboriginal person on the East coast of Australia to graduate with a combined Bachelor of Mathematics/Bachelor of Science. An astronomer, multiple award winner, 2019 Eureka Prize nominee, and one of the 2017 BBC's 100 Women. She is researching Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University, Australia.

Aunty Frances Bodkin is a descendant of the D’harawal people of the Bidiagal clan. She is an Elder, a scientist, an educator of D’harawal knowledge and holds a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences with five majors, including Environmental Sciences, and further postgraduate degrees. Combining the knowledge passed down from her Aboriginal mother with her university education she holds a holistic understanding of the natural environment and ways to care for it. Aunty Frances has published three books on D’harawal culture, stories and natural resources. She is an active member of Wollondilly Aboriginal Advisory Committee and has played a key role in the Campbelltown Hospital, Campbelltown TAFE, Mount Annan Botanic Gardens (part of the Australian Botanic Gardens) and what is now the UWS Campbelltown Campus.

Uncle Bruce Pascoe is an Aboriginal Australian writer of literary fiction, non-fiction, poetry, essays and children's literature. As well as his own name, he has written under the pen names Murray Gray and Leopold Glass. Since August 2020, he has been Enterprise Professor in Indigenous Agriculture at the University of Melbourne. Uncle is best known for his work Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident? (2014), which reexamines colonial accounts of Aboriginal people in Australia and cites evidence of pre-colonial agriculture, engineering and building construction by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. He has won numerous awards and has worked as a teacher, farmer, fisherman, barman, fencing contractor, lecturer, Aboriginal language researcher, archaeological site worker and editor. Bruce is a Yuin, Bunurong and Tasmanian man, and currently lives on his farm in Gippsland, Victoria.

Due to the volume of emails currently being received for email filing, the manual process connected with processing manually filed material, and the changes to the arrangements for staff, the Commission may be unable to provide an immediate response to email correspondence. A Registry staff member will respond to emails as soon as possible.

A party wishing to notify an urgent industrial dispute or to make an urgent enquiry should contact the Commission on 8688 3516. The Commission will list all genuinely urgent matters as soon as possible. To assist with obtaining an urgent listing, parties are encouraged to notify disputes as early as possible, and where a party identifies a dispute as urgent, then sufficient reasons should be given to support the stated urgency.

The full announcement is available here.

Applications must be submitted online, no later than 5.00pm on Friday, 30 July 2021. It is intended the names of successful applicants will be announced on or before the first Friday in October.

If you are an applicant who has held a barrister's practising certificate continuously in another state or territory prior to joining the NSW Bar, please contact Michelle Nisbet at the New South Wales Bar Association via mnisbet@nswbar.asn.au or on 9229 1713 or 0402 775543 in order that this can be noted in the information sent to the Consultation Group.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. (Any difficulties registering, please contact emily.graham@chambers.net.au )

Members are advised that, although the Bar Association is regularly updating the COVID-19 page of its website as information comes to hand please refer to the latest court resources directly as developments are changing quickly at this time. Do not make any assumptions regarding your case without first doing so. Links to the various court and tribunal pages are provided in the body of the guide.

Should you have any questions about the webinar, please contact wellbeing@nswbar.asn.au

Background

A great tradition at the Bar is the ‘Open Door Policy’ and it is to be hoped that it will continue. However, the Wellbeing Committee believes, anecdotally, that there is demand among a new generation of barristers to seek support in the online medium, particularly since the advent of COVID-19, which has brought about an increase in working from home. Some have turned to the Bar Association’s Ethics Guidance service for advice on matters that are not strictly related to ethics.

To be sure, BarCare is another great resource. However, a barrister is more likely to call BarCare when a problem has developed into a crisis. That is why the Wellbeing Committee is setting up the Safe Place to be concomitant with BarCare.

Format

The discussion group will operate online. Participants will have the opportunity to make full use of security settings on the Zoom AVL platform to protect their interests. Topics for discussion may be submitted to the convenor in advance or by using the chat function. Members may adjust the settings so as not to display their identity. Alternatively, those who wish to contribute may be admitted as a panellist to make their contribution. Those who do not want to share would be able to listen to others.

The format would be similar to that adopted by ‘12 Step programs’ insofar as moderators would not provide advice. Rather, the moderators would throw open the floor for each barrister to share their experiences or concerns (on a voluntary basis), without commentary from others and on the condition of discretion and confidentiality.

There will be a private family funeral. We will advise members of details of a public celebration of Hal's life to be held later in the year, when details are available.