Encouraging appropriate early guilty pleas

391 Pages·2015·3.36 MB·English

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New South Wales
Law Reform Commission Report
141
Encouraging
appropriate early guilty
pleas

December 2014
www.lawreform.justice.nsw.gov.au

February 2014
www.lawreform.lawlink.nsw.gov.au
Report 141 Encouraging appropriate early guilty pleas
© New South Wales Law Reform Commission, Sydney, 2014
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ISSN 1030 0244
ISBN 978-1-922254-02-3

ii NSW Law Reform Commission
December 2014

The Hon B Hazzard MP
Attorney General and Minister for Justice
Level 19, 52 Martin Place
SYDNEY NSW 2000

Dear Attorney

Encouraging appropriate early guilty pleas

We make this report pursuant to the reference to this Commission received 1 March 2013.

The Hon Anthony Whealy QC Deputy Chief Magistrate Jane Mottley
Commissioner Commissioner

December 2014 December 2014

NSW Law Reform Commission iii
Report 141 Encouraging appropriate early guilty pleas
Table of contents
Tables and figures ......................................................................................................................... x
Participants ................................................................................................................................. xiii
Terms of reference ..................................................................................................................... xiv
Abbreviations .............................................................................................................................. xv
Executive summary ................................................................................................................... xvii
Recommendations .................................................................................................................... xxv
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1
Background to the review ..................................................................................................... 1
The report in context.............................................................................................................. 2
Our process ............................................................................................................................ 2
The scope of this report ........................................................................................................ 3
Summary/indictable proceedings .......................................................................................... 4
Commonwealth prosecutions ............................................................................................... 5
Late guilty pleas in the current system ................................................................................ 7
Defining “late” guilty pleas .................................................................................................... 7
The incidence of late guilty pleas .......................................................................................... 8
The consequences of late guilty pleas .................................................................................. 9
Why late guilty pleas happen: 10 obstacles in a self-reinforcing system .............................. 9
Broad and systemic change is required ............................................................................ 10
Directions of reform ............................................................................................................ 11
New thinking and new ways of working are needed ........................................................... 12
The structure of this report ................................................................................................. 12
2. Guilty pleas in NSW: current status of indictable District Court matters ........................ 15
What happens in the Local Court? ..................................................................................... 16
Outcomes of indictable matters in the Local Court 2012/13 ............................................... 16
Late guilty pleas in the District Court ................................................................................. 18
How many matters resolve by a plea of guilty? .................................................................. 18
How many matters resolve by a late guilty plea? ................................................................ 19
How many late guilty pleas occur on the day of trial? ......................................................... 22
Comparison with Victoria and England and Wales ........................................................... 25
Victoria: occurrence of late guilty pleas in 2009 .................................................................. 26
England and Wales: occurrence of late guilty pleas in 2011 ............................................... 27
Who pleads guilty late in NSW? .......................................................................................... 28
The District Court of NSW: case flows ............................................................................... 30
Inflows and outflows: the District Court of NSW ................................................................. 30
Nature of inflows: initially trial or sentence? ........................................................................ 33
Regional variation ............................................................................................................... 35
Outflows (finalisations) ........................................................................................................ 36
Lessons from the data ......................................................................................................... 37
3. Overcoming the obstacles to early guilty pleas: a blueprint for change ........................ 39
Current criminal procedure for indictable matters in NSW .............................................. 40
What are the key obstacles to early guilty pleas in the current system? ............................. 43
A blueprint for change ......................................................................................................... 46
An overview of the proposed changes............................................................................... 47
How does the proposed blueprint address the obstacles to early guilty pleas? .................. 50
iv NSW Law Reform Commission
Table of contents
A joint practice note .............................................................................................................. 53
Excluded models ................................................................................................................... 54
Why we have excluded sentence indication ........................................................................ 54
Why we do not propose any changes to charge negotiations ............................................. 54
4. Early charge advice .............................................................................................................. 57
The need for early charge advice ........................................................................................ 58
The mechanism and extent of changes to the charge ......................................................... 59
Charge variations encourage late guilty pleas ..................................................................... 62
Stakeholders support early charge advice but differ on approach ....................................... 63
Two models for early charge advice: pre charge and post charge .................................. 63
Model 1: pre charge advice for NSW ................................................................................... 64
Model 2: post charge advice for NSW ................................................................................. 65
How do the two models look side by side? .......................................................................... 65
Comparing pre and post charge regimes ........................................................................... 67
Achieving charge certainty .................................................................................................. 67
Achieving efficiencies for courts and parties ........................................................................ 69
Promoting efficient police and prosecution disclosure ......................................................... 70
Charge decision bail: issues of principle and practical problems ......................................... 71
The extent of reform required .............................................................................................. 73
Our view: pre charge advice is ideal but not recommended at this time .............................. 75
The recommended operation of early charge advice in NSW ........................................... 76
Features of early charge advice for NSW ............................................................................ 77
Charge determinations from the ODPP ............................................................................... 79
Certification of the charge .................................................................................................... 80
Commonwealth and other prosecuting authorities ............................................................... 80
Cases must proceed promptly ............................................................................................. 81
NSW police to supply brief .................................................................................................. 82
Procedure for setting and meeting a timetable .................................................................... 82
Pre charge advice should be sought in appropriate cases ............................................... 86
The existing pre charge advice protocol in NSW ................................................................. 86
Alberta: a hybrid pre and post charge advice arrangement ................................................. 87
Pre charge advice in the Commonwealth jurisdiction .......................................................... 89
Our view: the existing pre charge advice protocol should be expanded .............................. 90
How would early charge advice be implemented? ............................................................. 91
5. Disclosure in the Local Court .............................................................................................. 93
Current process for disclosure ............................................................................................ 94
Disclosure from NSWPF to ODPP ....................................................................................... 95
Disclosure at committal ....................................................................................................... 96
Disclosure in the District Court and Supreme Court ............................................................ 97
Problems with the current system of disclosure................................................................... 98
Disclosure regimes in other jurisdictions ......................................................................... 103
Disclosure regime in England and Wales .......................................................................... 104
Disclosure regime in Western Australia ............................................................................. 108
Disclosure regime in New Zealand .................................................................................... 110
Disclosure regime in Queensland ...................................................................................... 112
Observations of the disclosure regimes in other jurisdictions ............................................ 114
Reforming disclosure in the Local Court .......................................................................... 114
Our view: introduce early disclosure regime in the Local Court ......................................... 115
Why we consider early disclosure will encourage early guilty pleas .................................. 115
Operation of the early disclosure regime in the Local Court .......................................... 116
Timing of early disclosure .................................................................................................. 116
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Report 141 Encouraging appropriate early guilty pleas
Material to be disclosed .................................................................................................... 118
Disclosure certificate should accompany initial brief ......................................................... 121
Comprehensive pre-trial disclosure should occur in the Supreme Court and District Court122
Enforcing compliance with disclosure requirements ......................................................... 122
Should there be a different standard of disclosure where a guilty plea is anticipated? ..... 123
Implementation ................................................................................................................... 123
6. Local Court case management for offences dealt with on indictment .......................... 125
Current case management in the Local Court ................................................................. 126
Current case management of indictable matters in the Local Court ................................. 126
Does the current case management process encourage early guilty pleas? .................... 128
Local Court case management under our blueprint ....................................................... 130
Case management should be based on a small number of meaningful events ................ 130
Why should the Local Court be responsible for case management? ................................ 130
What does Local Court case management seek to achieve? ........................................... 131
Stages of our proposed Local Court case management process ................................. 132
First stage: disclosure and putting the parties in contact .................................................. 132
Second stage: criminal case conference and cross-examination of prosecution witnesses135
Third stage: entering a plea .............................................................................................. 136
Are the stages of Local Court case management fixed? .................................................. 139
Early consideration should be given to likelihood of a guilty plea ................................ 139
Critical points for identifying matters likely to resolve in a guilty plea ................................ 140
How to identify a matter likely to resolve in a guilty plea ................................................... 141
Fitness to be tried under the blueprint ............................................................................. 143
Operational requirements for Local Court case management ....................................... 144
Involvement of senior prosecution and defence lawyers .................................................. 144
Centralised case management courts .............................................................................. 145
Alignment of ODPP and Legal Aid NSW catchment areas ............................................... 146
Increased use of audio-visual link facilities ....................................................................... 146
7. Mandatory criminal case conferencing ............................................................................ 149
The trial of criminal case conferencing in NSW (2006-2012) .......................................... 150
How did criminal case conferencing operate in NSW? ..................................................... 150
How successful was case conferencing in NSW? ............................................................ 153
The current process for facilitating case conferencing in NSW .................................... 156
Stakeholder views on reintroducing criminal case conferencing ................................. 156
Mandatory criminal case conferencing in NSW .............................................................. 157
Alternative models and stakeholder views ........................................................................ 158
Our view: criminal case conferencing should be mandatory ............................................. 160
When and how should criminal case conferencing occur? ........................................... 162
Alternative models and stakeholder views ........................................................................ 162
Our view: criminal case conferencing to occur before the final Local Court appearance and
be in any form ............................................................................................................... 162
Should criminal case conferencing be facilitated? ......................................................... 163
Alternative models and stakeholder views ........................................................................ 163
Our view: criminal case conferencing does not need to be facilitated .............................. 164
Requirements for certificates ............................................................................................ 165
Application of the criminal case conferencing program to Commonwealth matters... 166
How will criminal case conferencing be implemented in NSW? .................................... 166
8. Committal proceedings ..................................................................................................... 169
Committal proceedings and early guilty pleas ................................................................ 170
Overview of the committal process .................................................................................. 171
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Table of contents
How do indictable offences progress through the committal process? .............................. 171
On what basis is the magistrate’s decision at committal made? ........................................ 173
What happens after the committal process is concluded? ................................................. 174
What are the statistics on committal proceedings? ........................................................ 175
Outcome of matters listed for committal 2012/13 .............................................................. 176
Outcome of matters listed for committal 2011/12 .............................................................. 178
Cross-examination of witnesses at committal .................................................................... 178
Discontinuance of proceedings after committal ................................................................. 180
Ex officio indictments filed by the ODPP following discharge at committal ........................ 181
Committals run by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions ............................ 181
Background to reform of committal proceedings ............................................................ 183
History of committal proceedings ....................................................................................... 183
Proposals have been made in NSW to abolish committals ............................................... 184
How have other jurisdictions reformed committal proceedings? ........................................ 186
What functions do committal hearings serve in NSW? ................................................... 191
Effectiveness of the modern committal hearing in achieving its functions................... 194
Is the committal decision an effective filter for weak cases? ............................................. 194
Does the committal process effectively facilitate prosecution disclosure? ......................... 197
Does the committal process effectively facilitate guilty pleas? .......................................... 200
Changing committal hearings in NSW .............................................................................. 200
Will removing the committal decision encourage earlier guilty pleas? ............................... 201
Will removing the committal decision save time and resources in the Local Court? .......... 202
Will removing the committal decision result in delay in the Supreme and District Courts? 204
Our conclusion on committal proceedings ...................................................................... 205
Minority view: introduce default committal for trial with option to request committal decision
by magistrate ................................................................................................................. 206
Majority view: remove committal decision ......................................................................... 207
Pre trial oral evidence ......................................................................................................... 208
Should there be a procedure for oral evidence in the Local Court? ................................... 209
Our view: retain oral evidence in the Local Court with safeguards .................................... 210
Should there be a procedure for oral evidence in the Supreme and District Courts? ........ 214
9. Applying the discount on sentence ................................................................................... 217
Sentencing discounts for the utilitarian value of a guilty plea........................................ 218
The current application of a sentence discount for a guilty plea in NSW ........................... 218
Sentencing discounts in other jurisdictions..................................................................... 221
England and Wales: discount attached to an early guilty plea scheme ............................. 221
The Commonwealth .......................................................................................................... 221
Current NSW law on sentencing discounts does not encourage early guilty pleas ..... 223
The belief that the sentence discount for an early guilty plea will not make a difference ... 223
The belief that the timing of the plea has little effect upon whether the maximum discount is
applied ........................................................................................................................... 224
Stakeholder views ............................................................................................................... 224
Our view: a statutory sentence discount regime is required .......................................... 225
The discount reflects the utilitarian value of the plea ......................................................... 226
The discount should be reflected in statute ....................................................................... 227
The discount should have three clear tiers ........................................................................ 228
The maximum discount should be referred to as the “ERD” .............................................. 230
The discount is a maximum ............................................................................................... 230
Exceptions to the three tiered approach ........................................................................... 231
Exceptions to the cut off should be limited ........................................................................ 231
Should there be any further exceptions to the application of the statutory discount? ........ 233
How should the statutory discount regime be implemented in NSW? ........................... 234
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10. Case management in the Supreme and District Courts .................................................. 237
The value of case management in the higher courts ...................................................... 237
Current pre-trial procedure in the higher courts of NSW ............................................... 238
Key legislative provisions .................................................................................................. 238
The impact of our blueprint on criminal procedure in the higher courts ...................... 239
The District Court practice note ........................................................................................ 240
Issues in practice in the District Court............................................................................... 243
The Supreme Court practice note ..................................................................................... 245
Issues in practice in the Supreme Court ........................................................................... 246
Proposed measures for the higher courts ....................................................................... 247
A trial case management stream ...................................................................................... 247
11. Victims and the indictable criminal justice system ......................................................... 251
How do victims currently interact with the indictable criminal justice system? .......... 252
Prosecution obligations regarding victims ...................................................................... 256
Charter of Victims Rights .................................................................................................. 256
ODPP’s Prosecution Guidelines ....................................................................................... 257
Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) ............................................................. 258
What problems do victims experience with the current indictable system? ................ 259
Lack of information ........................................................................................................... 259
Charge negotiations.......................................................................................................... 260
Delay ................................................................................................................................ 262
Committal hearings ........................................................................................................... 263
Sentence discounts for early guilty pleas.......................................................................... 264
What does the proposed blueprint look like from a victim’s perspective? ................... 265
What are the advantages for victims under our blueprint? ............................................ 267
Getting the charge right early ........................................................................................... 267
Minimising delay ............................................................................................................... 267
Continuous ODPP involvement ........................................................................................ 267
Earlier charge negotiations ............................................................................................... 268
Less likelihood of a late guilty plea close to trial ............................................................... 268
Only early guilty pleas receive the maximum sentencing discount ................................... 268
When should victims be consulted under the blueprint? ............................................... 269
Victim should be consulted as soon as possible after charge is confirmed ...................... 269
Victim should continue to be consulted prior to charge negotiations ................................ 270
Improving the interaction between the prosecutor and the victim ................................ 271
Other suggestions for reform ........................................................................................... 272
Free legal advice for victims ............................................................................................. 272
Requirement to “obtain” victim and police views ............................................................... 273
12. Reform of criminal justice agencies and evaluation of the blueprint ............................ 275
Supporting systemic changes .......................................................................................... 275
Public and private service provision.................................................................................. 276
Specifying outcomes and collecting data ........................................................................ 277
Legal Aid NSW .................................................................................................................... 278
Assignment ....................................................................................................................... 278
Quality control of the panel ............................................................................................... 279
Fees.................................................................................................................................. 280
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions .......................................................... 282
Changes the ODPP has made ......................................................................................... 282
Changes to ODPP processes required under the blueprint approach .............................. 283
The role of Crown Prosecutors ......................................................................................... 284
The courts ........................................................................................................................... 284
viii NSW Law Reform Commission
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Joint practice note ............................................................................................................. 285
Create centralised courts with increased audio-visual link capability ................................. 285
The NSW Police Force ........................................................................................................ 285
The legal profession ........................................................................................................... 285
Resourcing the blueprint .................................................................................................... 287
Implementation .................................................................................................................... 288
Evaluation of the blueprint ................................................................................................. 289
How should any evaluation be staged? ............................................................................. 290
13. Safeguarding against inappropriate guilty pleas ............................................................. 293
Unrepresented defendants ................................................................................................. 294
Current practice and procedure regarding unrepresented defendants in indictable
proceedings ................................................................................................................... 294
Stakeholder views ............................................................................................................. 297
Our view: unrepresented defendants are sufficiently protected under current guidelines and
practices......................................................................................................................... 297
The particular characteristics of the defendant ............................................................... 298
Gender and guilty pleas ..................................................................................................... 298
Minority groups and guilty pleas ........................................................................................ 299
Age of the offender and guilty pleas .................................................................................. 300
Our view: complex causative factors cannot be dealt with in this report ............................ 300
Sentence disparity .............................................................................................................. 301
Stakeholder views ............................................................................................................. 302
Our view: inappropriate pleas mitigated under our blueprint ............................................. 303

Appendix A Submissions ......................................................................................................... 305
Appendix B Consultations and stakeholder engagement ..................................................... 307
Appendix C Methodological notes on NSW committal statistics .......................................... 315
Appendix D A proposed framework for pre charge advice .................................................. 321
Appendix E Fast-track early guilty plea schemes in England and Wales and WA .............. 347
Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 353
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Report 141 Encouraging appropriate early guilty pleas
Tables and figures
Figure 2.1 and 2.2: Outcomes of indictable matters in the Local Court 2012/13 ........................ 17
Figure 2.3: A snapshot of all indictable matters resolved in the District Court of NSW 2013 ... 19
Figure 2.4: Data measures for late guilty pleas ............................................................................. 20
Figure 2.5: Percentage of cases initially committed to trial actually finalised by sentencing
(a late guilty plea after committal) 2002-2013 .......................................................... 21
Figure 2.6: The percentage of cases finalised by a guilty plea in the District Court of NSW,
where a guilty plea was entered late 2002-2013 ...................................................... 21
Figure 2.7: Outcome of matters committed for trial 2011/12 ........................................................ 23
Figure 2.8: Precise timing of late guilty pleas in the District Court 2011/12 ............................... 23
Figure 2.9: Precise timing of late guilty pleas in the District Court 2012/13 ............................... 24
Figure 2.10: Of all day-of-trial pleas in the District Court, the proportion that are to a
changed charge 2012 ................................................................................................ 25
Figure 2.11: Times of entry of guilty pleas in NSW and Victoria .................................................. 26
Table 2.1: Summary of factors related to plea (Table 4) ............................................................... 29
Figure 2.12: Incoming cases and finalised cases in the District Court of NSW 2002-2013........ 31
Figure 2.13: Difference between number of incoming cases and number of finalised cases
in the District Court of NSW 2002-2013 .................................................................... 31
Figure 2.14: Median number of days from committal to outcome in the District Court of
NSW 2009-2013 .......................................................................................................... 32
Figure 2.15: Median number of days from arrest to committal in the Local Court of NSW
2009-2013 .................................................................................................................... 33
Figure 2.16: Number of cases committed for trial or sentence in the District Court of NSW
2002-2013 .................................................................................................................... 34
Figure 2.17: Type of incoming cases in the District Court of NSW 2002-2013 ............................ 35
Figure 2.18: Type of incoming cases to different District Court of NSW registries 2013........... 36
Figure 2.19: Method of finalisation of cases in the District Court of NSW 2002-2013 ................ 37
Figure 3.1: Current criminal procedure for indictable matters in NSW ....................................... 42
Figure 3.2: Flowchart of the proposed blueprint for NSW indictable proceedings .................... 49
Table 3.1: A snapshot of how our blueprint addresses the obstacles to early guilty pleas ...... 52
Figure 4.1 and 4.2: Outcomes of indictable matters in the Local Court 2012/13 ........................ 60
Figure 4.3: Proportion of all day-of-trial pleas in the District Court to a changed charge 2012 61
Figure 4.4: Flowchart comparing pre and post charge advice ..................................................... 66
Table 4.1: Summary chart between pre and post charge advice regimes ................................... 74
Figure 4.5: Flowchart of proposed early charge advice regime for NSW .................................... 78
Table 4.2: Necessary authorisation for early charge advice ........................................................ 91
Table 5.1: Contents of Charging Reports and the National File Standard in England
and Wales ................................................................................................................. 106
Table 5.2: Disclosure regime under the Criminal Procedure Act 2004 (WA) ............................. 109
Table 5.3: Disclosure regime under the Criminal Disclosure Act 2008 (NZ) ............................. 111
Table 5.4: Required changes to implement early disclosure in the Local Court ...................... 123
Figure 6.1: Current committal process in NSW ........................................................................... 127
Figure 6.2: Stages of case management in the Local Court under the blueprint: an example 138
Figure 7.1: Comparison of administrative and statutory CCC trials in NSW 2006-2012 .......... 151
Figure 7.2: Number of cases committed for trial or sentence in the District Court 2002-2013 155
Figure 7.3: Percentage of matters entering the District Court that were committed for trial
2002-2013 .................................................................................................................. 155
Table 7.1: Required amendments and inclusions for implementation of ERD and the trial
case management streams ..................................................................................... 167
Figure 8.1: Outcomes of indictable matters in the Local Court 2012/13.................................... 177
x NSW Law Reform Commission