When you are faced with a charge, Court Attendance Notice and a fact sheet these 'facts' will overwhelmingly support the case against you and quite likely prejudice you. It is important that you first seek professional advice in relation to your Court Attendance Notice so that you are able to plead guilty to what you have actually done.

Even when pleading guilty the original facts can be changed to properly represent your conduct by negotiating with the police or DPP with a lawyer that understands how this process works.

Pleading guilty does attract a 25% discount at the earliest opportunity. It is common that people enter a plea too soon before being advised. They may feel guilty of something and this can often lead to pleading guilty to a far more serious charge than their conduct represents.

A good example of this might be that you get into an argument with a cab driver. You exchange swear words and the argument is very heated and your words were highly offensive. You get out of the cab and walk down the street. Your friend stays in the cab and 100 meters down the road your friend punches the cab driver. You are all charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm in company, a serious violence offense. This type of scenario is very common.

Too many people simply plead guilty to serious offenses like this without understanding that they have a right to plead to a lesser charge like offensive language. It is very common for the police to accept such representations. This can be the difference between a $660 fine and a 7 year maximum prison sentence.

Family Lawyers are costly, especially during financially tough times like divorce. It is important that you keep in focus your long term financial health and the financial health of your partner. 

Quite often children are involved and financially ruining your partner or attempting to do so is only going to make both yourselves and your children poorer, and your family lawyers richer. 

If your goal is to leave an abusive partner, or if your marriage has just fizzled out slowly, you should always try your hardest to shop around when looking for a family lawyer. Many family lawyers are drawn to clients that want to fight. More time in Court is of course, more money for the lawyers.

Often times people tend to be very short sighted when it comes to financial settlements. A good family lawyer should be able to tell you within reasonable parameters what kind of financial settlement you should expect when divorcing.

It is always advisable to diffuse and to manage family law matters in a mature and reasonable fashion. Unfortunately family law is inherently emotional and sometimes due to one or both partners, long term Court proceedings are inescapable. Just know that the more you want to fight, the more you have to lose. Trying your best to move forward and helping or allowing your partner to move forward is always the best option. 

In the unfortunate event that you do need to engage a family lawyer, please keep in mind that there are no winners in vexatious family law proceedings. Only bitterness. 

While your lawyer will act how you instruct them to act, it is not always in your best interests to fight against inevitable outcomes, a good lawyer will seek to provide you with updated short, medium and long term realistic goals in relation to your matter. 

Strata By-Laws are essential rules made for a particular building in order to keep the building at a certain standard expected by the owners. 

Sometimes Strata By-Laws can be interpreted in your favour, for instance a By-Law may allow visitors to park cars in unused common areas of the car park. Other By-Laws may go against you, for example by banning pets. 

When making alterations to your property internally it is very important that you seek the advice of a lawyer in determining whether you are able to renovate or change parts of your dwelling. When alterations touch or concern common property as a general rule you cannot change that part of the building. However, you can seek to make a By-Law that allows you to add to, demolish or rebuild structural elements with the help of a specialist builder or engineer and a lawyer drafting the By-Law. 

The By-Law will need to be accepted by the owners corporation, it is not a sure thing. However you do have a chance at improving your property if you can convince the owners corp to accept your By - Law. 

Drafting By Laws can be quite technical and requires in depth research. It is always advisable to talk to a lawyer before trying to change a By-Law. 

I have travelled to and networked with lawyers in Gibraltar. Gibraltar can offer people with fantastic company structures and residency status. 

Gibraltar is truly unique in many respects and is a place every business person should know about.
It holds sovereignty through the UK and has a common law legal system. It is landlocked with Spain and has it's own international airport. Gibraltar has been held for 300 years and commands picturesque views of Both Spain and North Africa. 

Any person that can prove their source of income and good character is able to purchase purchase a company in Gibraltar. Professional Directors can be nominated to run the company for you. The corporate tax rate is 10% and there is no tax on deposits held at the bank. Gibraltar does require some tax be paid and is therefore not strictly speaking a tax haven. This makes Gibraltar one of the best safe spots in Europe for holding companies. 

You have the choice of several european private banks and the minimum deposit with these institutions is approximately 200,000 pounds. Some have a minimum deposit of 1 Million. 

If you are interested in moving to Gibraltar or Europe special residency is available for those worth over 2m pounds. 

You need to provide reports from a professional of good character and also from your accountant proving that you have total assets in excess of 2 million pounds. 

You need to either rent or purchase a property that is approved by the Authorities in Gibraltar. This should cost approximately 2000-4000 pounds per month to rent and approximately 200,000 pounds to buy. 

Special residency entitles you to a sliding capped tax rate between 22,000 to 33,000 pounds per year. 

This effectively means you can come and go as you please in Gibraltar, drive over the boarder to Spain and through the south of France. Take a plane to the Swiss Alps or head to the UK for a cup of tea.

Whether your income for the year was $300,000 or 100 million your income tax rate will be capped at between 22,000 and 33,000 pounds. 

After spending some time on the Rock of Gibraltar and meeting some of the people there it became quite clear. Special residency is a well known secret for the worlds rich who wish to enjoy fantastic year round weather and access to Europe. 

With the recent Brexit from the EU there will be a transitionary period but it seems likely that Gibraltar will be business as usual for another 300 years. 

I can discuss company or residency set ups in Gibraltar in more detail. 

To be as clear as possible you need a lawyer that is willing to get to know you and your case back to front. You don't need a solicitors that is often seen in the media to obtain a good result, these solicitors quite often run practices that delegate and overload their employee solicitors with work and charge higher fees. 

The best way to choose a lawyer is to meet them in person and find one fits your values. Choosing a lawyer with experience is vital but it is more important that your lawyer has time for you and your matter. There is nothing worse as a client than having a lawyer who is too busy to speak to you. These lawyers are usually overloaded with work to the point that the quality of their work can suffer. 

The best lawyer on the day is undoubtably the one that knows the case back to front. There is danger in engaging a lawyer that is managing  50+ clients. 

How do you choose a lawyer then? The best answer I can give you is to look around and talk to lawyers. Get a feel for their current work load and choose them because you feel comfortable with them and trust them. Do not use fees as the sole estimator of quality, we all studied the same legal course and while some are more naturally gifted and some more experienced than others, a good legal representation is based on preparation before the court date.

If you feel your lawyer does not have the time to help you through the process there is a good chance they do not have the time and you should find a lawyer that does. 

You should also be wary of lawyers that make promises, Courts often come to unfair decisions as the rule of law is designed to apply strictly in most circumstances. Just because something is unfair does not mean you will always escape penalty, especially without putting forward compelling evidence.

Be wary of lawyers that do not seek to tender evidence to back up your claims. This type of supporting evidence is crucial such as employment letters, character letters and expert evidence such as mechanical, psychological and forensic reports. Mere words alone from a slick talking lawyer will not guarantee you a good outcome, ground work on a matter does. 

When you commit a serious traffic offence or criminal traffic offence you may be investigated, the police may try to interview you and then finally issue you with a Court Attendance Notice. 

At the earliest possible time you should to engage a lawyer for the best result. 

In many respects Traffic offences are the same as regular Criminal offences, however many traffic offences are strict liability, which means the prosecution does not have to prove you intended to do the offence, meaning you are defacto guilty unless you can prove that you did not commit the act or omission (failing to act) which caused the offence. 

A typical not guilty defence for something that was not your act would be having an unexpected heart attack or unexpected seizure. Or perhaps your car or motorcycle has malfunctioned such as a jammed accelerator,  tyre failure, gearbox failure, engine failure, brake failure, hitting a pot hole or having a passenger interfering with your driving causing the car to veer off course. 

You cannot argue whether you intentionally committed the offence with strict liability traffic matters but you can argue mistake of fact. This is when you are reasonably mistaken as to the facts of a major issue that has caused the incident. This gives you an opportunity to test the prosecution case against you by pleading not guilty and it gives you the opportunity to explain something that may be inherently unfair, such as the failure to display or incorrectly displayed sign post with a lower speed. 

Perhaps you have never received a licence suspension notice only to find that the police want to charge you with driving whilst disqualified. If there is a reasonable argument that you have been honestly mistaken this gives you the ability to plead not guilty dropping the case against you.  

You cannot use ignorance of the law as an excuse but you can be reasonably mistaken and sometimes the law can be so confusing or contradictory that the result can swing in your favour.

The justice system needs to accept when people were honestly and reasonably mistaken because this can and does happen for valid reason. for example:

Jack,18, met Jill in a nightclub, Jill represented herself as 18 but she was in fact 15 and 11 months of age. At a later stage in the night they had consensual sex, but the law does not give Jill the ability to consent at this age. 

Without the ability to argue mistake of fact Jack would be a convicted and registered sex offender for the rest of his life. 

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. . 

All of the above are Lawyers as they work in law.

Solicitors are able to engage in mixed legal practice offering a range of services. They can appear in most Courts for most matters, own a law firm and they are able to conduct almost all legal services depending on their expertise. 

Barristers can only work for themselves. They spend most of their time in Court and become specialists with court work, usually taking on more serious matters. Barristers can take clients directly however most Barristers are engaged by solicitors who have interviewed the client and assessed their particular case. This gives the client a significant edge because it allows them to put their best foot forward when dealing with their Barrister. 

Counsel is an interchangeable word for Barrister.

Senior Counsel also known as SC is a title applied for when a Barrister believes they have reached the top of their profession. The applications are assessed and only a small amount are accepted.

Queens Counsel also known as QC is the formerly awarded SC title and some QC Barristers are still practicing in Australia.  Both SC and QC titles are also known as silk or silks. 

A Senior Junior Barrister is a very experienced Barrister that has not obtained and SC title. This may be because they have never applied for the title which is most likely, or because their application has not been accepted among the very competitive applicants and political nature of the legal profession. 

The difference in skill level between an SC and a Senior Junior Barrister can vary either way, with the SC title being a politically higher position but not an absolute guarantee of greater legal skill than a Senior Junior Barrister. However, the title of SC and QC are a great mark of respect in the legal community and respect goes a long way. 

I once asked an SC who he thought the best Barrister in the country was, and he replied;

"The one who knows his brief back to front." 

In other words; the lawyer who cares the most and puts the most time into understanding the legal issues and facts surrounding your case, is likely to be the best lawyer on the day. 

These rankings of seniority do generally align with greater fees.

Most Solicitors charge between $500 and $3000 per day. 

Junior Barristers charge about $500 - $2000 per day,

Some Senior Juniors charge $2000 - $4000 per day. 

SC and QC Barristers are known to charge up to and in excess of $8000 per day. 

Your Solicitor can engage any Barrister. However it is best of your Solicitor has a working relationship with a range of Barristers.  This way your Solicitor will be able to give you options and can aid you in selecting the highest skilled barrister for the rate you can afford.

If you are interested in engaging counsel for your legal matter I have working relationships with several Barristers and can negotiate daily rates for you ranging from $1000 to $5000+ per day. 

Magistrates are the decision makers presiding in the Local Court. 

Judges are the decision makers presiding in the District, Supreme and High Court. 

You should address Magistrates and Judges as "Your Honour" and follow their directions in a respectful way to help the court progress and to best position yourself for a favourable outcome. 

If you never try something you will never succeed at that thing. Sometimes the law can be harsh and unreasonable and you should fight for your rights. Always put forward your best argument and have a lawyer defend you, It is worth a try. 

The Court process is intimidating and follows strict guidelines. Most people have very little understanding of the court process and this puts them at a severe disadvantage when defending themselves against a well resourced prosecution. 

Always engage a lawyer and try to defend yourself. Your lawyer will be able to prepare you for court correctly. Legal advice provides a well thought out and calculated approach based on experience. Lawyers can direct you towards a self improvement course or advise you to obtain Doctors reports. This type of evidence can make the difference between a bad result and an excellent result. 

Fees and fines can be reduced and waived by the Court if your lawyer can show that you would struggle to pay the fine. Some fines are as little as $100 and upwards of $2000. This makes it logical to engage a lawyer as they will not only potentially save you money but they will put you in the best position to reduce your sentence or have your case dismissed entirely. 

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