Reasons for a Victorian court hierarchy in determining criminal cases, including specialisation and appeals

Victorian Court Hierachy

Reasons for a court hiearchy

Specialisation as a reason for a court hierarchy

• courts develop own areas of expertise

• The Court of Appeal- specialises in determining criminal appeals sentencing principles

• The Supreme Court (Trial)- most serious indictable, elements of each crime, developed expertise (evidence)

• County Court- expertise in indictable cases involving drug off, sexual, theft.

• Magistrates Court- minor, dealt w quick, efficiently as well as committal

Appeals as a reason for a court hierachy

• application to have higher courts reveiw a ruling/ decision. party who appeals is known as the appelant & other party is respondent

• grounds for appeal on law, conviction, etc

• accussed or prosecution can appeal

• if no higher courts, no system for appeals results in unfairness

S+W of a court hierachy

strengths

• allows courts to specialise in criminal matters, allows more efficent proccesses or resources based on the cases they hear

• existence of court hierachy allows appeals to be made by both parties if there is an error in original decision

Weaknesses

• many diff courts can be confusing, can be confusing for indictable cases as needed to see both magistrates and higher courts

• does not allow for an automatic right to appeal. offenders must establish grounds for can restrict the ability of accussed ppl to access appeal hierachy