Criminal Court, Guilty & Not Guilty

When you are charged with an offence you will find yourself in Criminal Court. 

The prosecution needs to prove you guilty beyond reasonable doubt. You and your legal team do not have to prove that you are innocent. Your legal team just needs to prove there is reasonable doubt that you committed the offence. 

Matters that are likely to result in less than a 2 year prison sentence are heard in the Local Court. Whereas matters that are likely to result in more than a 2 year prison sentence are heard in the District Court. 

To give yourself the best possible defence you should retain a lawyer as soon as possible, especially if the police are trying to interview you in regard to an alleged offence. Having a Lawyer present during the interview process or declining to interview altogether is your best option.

The police are trained professionals and their questions will be geared to extracting the facts... However police can fall into error and manufacture an account of events that point at you being the major suspect. Countless falsely convicted and imprisoned people have attempted to help police solve the crime but have unknowingly painted themselves as suspect number one and sealed their own conviction. . 

If you are given a CAN - Court Attendance Notice it will inform you of your court date. You should talk to a lawyer immediately if you have not by now. 

Your lawyer will have a brief containing the evidence set out against you by the DPP - Department of Police Prosecution. This will include facts sheets which can be amended and signed when certain facts are agreed on by everyone. 

If the evidence is overwhelming and points directly to guilty it is best to enter a plea of guilty at the earliest possible stage which can lead to a 25% reduction in your sentence and a very large discount in legal costs. For example:

A Matter than can be run in 1 or 2 days as a guilty plea generally results in costs of
between $750 - $2000. 

A Matter that is defended, that is when you plead not guilty to the offence, can take 2+ days, extensive research and preparation time resulting is costs of $1500 - $5000 depending on the time involved in the matter.

People may think that legal costs are a bit steep and that lawyers are rich but this is far from the truth. Some of the best lawyers at the best firms only make on average $25 per hour when you factor in the real time and prep work that goes into the legal services they provide.

A successful defended hearing could involve several conferences with the client, dozens of phone calls to expert witnesses such as forensics and doctors, involving counsel with decades of expertise on the particular issue, filing, printing, photocopying.... hours spent lateral thinking at work and hours thinking about the case when they are not even working on the case. 

The harder your legal team works the more likely it is that you will have prejudicial evidence made inadmissible against you increasing your chance of an acquittal. An acquittal is where the prosecution fails to prove the charges against you and you are free to go home. 

Those who can afford to pursue defended hearings are able to have the evidence against them tested and this is vital when a person is charged with a serious offence or several offences because it is very well possible that there is only sufficient evidence to proceed to conviction for a lesser offence or proceeding to conviction on just one offence. This will drastically decrease the sentence faced by the defendant. For example:

Anthony is charged with Murdering Greg:

Option 1: Anthony pleads guilty to murdering Greg, this reduces his legal fees by several fold and obtains a 25% discount on his sentence. At sentencing the Judge looks favourably upon Anthony considering he admitted his crime and  the Judge gives him a sentence of 16 years imprisonment. 

Option 2: Anthony pleads not guilty to murdering Greg.

- Anthony offers a full defence such as proportionate self defence and may walk away a free man if the Judge or Jury agree that the prosecution cannot prove the act was in self defence.
 
- Anthony offers a partial defence such as provocation, Greg had been caught in the act of stealing things from Anthony's house and Anthony there was a struggle and Anthony went too far and killed Greg. This may result in the lesser charge of manslaughter. At sentencing the Judge takes mercy on Anthony and gives him 6 years imprisonment for manslaughter. 

- Anthony pleads not guilty to murder and explains there was no act or intention to kill Greg and this could result in a charge of manslaughter or total acquittal. 

As you can see, in the fictional examples above, sometimes it is far better to test the evidence against you to ensure that you are given the fairest treatment under the law. This is why it is very unwise to talk to police before you talk to a lawyer because they are very likely to pressure you into agreeing to certain facts that did not necessarily happen in that way, in such an order or at all. 

Obtaining legal advice as soon as possible gives you the best opportunity to obtain justice. If you plead not guilty when it is blindingly obvious you will be found guilty then you could be spending 25% longer in Prison having not obtained the discounted sentence.

If you plead guilty when you are not guilty to parts or all parts of the offence, you may spend far more than 25% longer in prison. 

In regard to less serious offences you might not be looking at prison time... but you certainly may be looking to keep a clean criminal record for work, study or travel purposes and having a clean criminal record is a vital indicator in terms of your life's path. It is always important to obtain good legal advice to ensure that what may have been a minor error, doesn't ruin your future. .