Negligence - Nervous shock - Duty of care - Criteria for imposition - Novel situations - Salient elements analysis - Incremental development of law - Failure to prevent suicide - Statutory authorities - Failure to exercise protective power - Foreseeability - Policy - Vulnerability - Police - Operational power to detain mentally ill persons - Police patrol encountering person apparently contemplating suicide - Assessment of person's mental state - Decision to allow person to return home - Person committing suicide at home later same day - Wife arriving at scene of husband's death - Consequential psychiatric injury - Whether police owed person duty of care to person to prevent suicide - Whether police owed duty of care to widow - Mental Health Act 1986 (No 59) s 10.

Costs - Appeal costs - Indemnity certificate - Crown - Police - Application for certificate by respondent police officers - Entitlement - Prohibition on grant of certificate to "person representing the Crown" - Appeal Costs Act 1998 (No 87) ss 4 38 - Mental Health Act 1986 (No 59) s 10.

Constitutional law - Crown servants - Police - Refraining from exercising statutory power of apprehension - Not acting on behalf of Crown.

Administrative law - Judicial review - Occupational regulation - Power - Scope - Interaction of statutory schemes - Taxi driver's certificate - Taxi authority - Power to require applicant for certificate to pass any test and hold any qualification specified by authority - Specification of training course approved by another statutory authority - Taxi authority conducting unannounced inspection of training organisation premises - Taxi authority withdrawing recognition of training organisation's assessment unless specific conditions met - Whether decision ultra vires - Unreasonableness - Procedural fairness - Transport Act 1983 (No 9921) ss 156 162 - Transport (Taxi-Cabs) Regulations 2005 reg 6(1)(d) - Victorian Qualifications Authority Act 2000 (No 97).

Criminal law - Confiscation of property - Restraining order - Automatic forfeiture - Application for exclusion - DPP contending application out of time - Whether application made within 60 days of conviction - When conviction occurs - Arraignment, plea of guilty, allocutus - Plea taken at listing hearing - Matter adjourned for plea and sentence - Whether unequivocal acceptance of plea - "Conviction" - Confiscation Act 1997 (No 108) ss 4 22 35.

Appeal - Appeal to Court of Appeal - Final decision - Leave not required - Refusal to grant prerogative writ.

Criminal law - Murder - Defences - Mental impairment - Statutory direction that judge explain to jury legal consequences of finding of mental impairment - Deficiency in explanation - Verdict set aside - Guilty verdict not unreasonable - Crown not obliged to call psychiatrist who had examined accused - "Legal consequences" - Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried) Act 1997 (No 65) s 22(2)(a) - Crimes Act 1958 (No 6231) ss 568 569(4)

Discrimination - Equal opportunity - Indirect discrimination - Impairment - Public education - Student - Learning disability - Condition imposed for access to education - Failure to provide full-time teacher's aide - Whether tribunal impermissibly reformulated condition - Whether condition not reasonable - Whether tribunal impermissibly extended claim period - Loss - Causation - Multiple contributing causes - Commonsense approach - Orders - Validity - Prevention of further contraventions - Equal Opportunity Act 1995 (No 42) ss 4 9 37 136.

Administrative law - Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal - Appeal - Error of law - Relevant considerations - Government policy - Procedural fairness - Failure to give notice of scope of directions hearing - Reasons for decision - Inadequacy - Whether tribunal's order involved impermissible delegation to third party - Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998 (No 53) ss 97 98 117 148.

Human rights - Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal - Whether court can apply Charter principles not applicable to proceeding before tribunal - No retrospective operation - Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (No 43) ss 8 32 49.

Defamation - Pleading - Defences - Contextual truth - Imputation - Whether capable of being more injurious than plaintiff's imputation - Particulars - Sufficiency - Uniform defamation legislation - Single cause of action arising from act of publication - Role of jury - Defamation Act 2005 (No 75) ss 8 22(2) 26.

Defamation - Pleading - Defences - Honest opinion - Substance - Whether defence addressed permitted variant of plaintiff's sole imputation - Defamation Act 2005 (No 75) s 31.

Defamation - Pleading - Imputation - Capacity to arise - Strained but not utterly unreasonable meaning - Hypothetical ordinary reader - Attributes.

Criminal law - Confiscation of property - Tainted property - Restraining order - Order lapsing following acquittal - Conviction of co-accused - Status of property as tainted property established - Whether Director of Public Prosecutions entitled to make fresh application for restraining order over same property - Whether director could rely on reasonable suspicion when status of property as tainted property already established - Confiscation Act 1997 (No 108) ss 1 3 15 16 18 20 24 27 37 38.

Administrative law - Freedom of information - Exempt documents - Personal affairs of any person - Unreasonable disclosure - Test - Relevant considerations - Effect of disclosure of document - Extent of possible or likely disclosure of information - Whether statutory disclosure of document necessarily disclosure to world at large - "Would" - "Involve" - "Unreasonable disclosure of information" - Freedom of Information Act 1982 (No 9859) ss 3 13 29 29A 31(1) 33(1) 33(2A)

Companies - Managed investment scheme - Meeting of members - Requisitions by member - Validity - Whether requisition power exercised for improper purpose - Proposed resolutions to wind up scheme and remove responsible entity - Validity - Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) ss 252B 252C 601FC 601HA 1041H 1322.

Companies - Winding up - Creditor - Whether plaintiff a prospective or contingent creditor - Insolvency ground - Just and equitable ground - Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) s 459P

Practice and procedure - Costs - Discretion - Witness expenses - County Court - Whether judge has discretion to fix witness expenses above the scale provided in App A to the County Court Rules - Whether exercise of discretion to fix witness expenses miscarried - Trial in circuit town - Personal injuries action - Expert medical witness - County Court Act 1958 (No 6230) ss 33 78(1) 78A(1)

Criminal law - Evidence - Sexual offences - Complaint - Delay - Two years and seven months - Evidence not capable of amounting to recent complaint - Forensic disadvantage to accused caused by delay - No direction that evidence of complaint could not be used to assess complainant's credibility - Miscarriage of justice.

Criminal law - Evidence - Admissibility - Sexual offences - Memory recovered by hypnotherapy - Dangers inherent in such evidence - Heightened level of susceptibility to suggestion - Requirements for admissibility.

Criminal law - Sentence - Double punishment - Slavery - Exercise of powers of ownership over immigrant sex workers - Separate offences of using and possessing slaves - Whether offences overlapped - Whether double punishment imposed - Appeal against conviction allowed - High Court allowing director's appeal - Conviction reinstated - Resentencing - Developments since original sentencing - Additional hardship consequent upon reinstatement of conviction - Gravity of offending - Sentence not manifestly excessive - General deterrence - Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) s 270.3(1)(a).

Trusts and trustees - Resulting trust - Presumption - Rebuttal - Common intention constructive trust - Purchase of land - Housing Commission terms contract of sale - Family home - Parents paying monthly instalments and interest for four and a half years - Son paying balance of principal and interest - Parents acquiring equitable interest - Resulting trust for parents and son - Equitable tenants in common - Shares proportionate to purchase price contributions - Value - Ascertainment - Date of valuation - Sale of land and purchase of substitute family home - Contributions by son and parents - Parents becoming sole registered proprietors - Agreement that son would have interest commensurate with contribution - Presumption of resulting trust rebutted - Housing Act 1983 (No 10020) s 3(2) - Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 (No 10096) s 36(2).

Costs - Set-off - Jurisdiction - Successful plaintiff - Declarations - Order for sale of land and division of proceeds - Costs order in plaintiff's favour - Whether costs order to be set off against defendants' share of proceeds of sale.

Equity - Equitable set-off - Costs - Successful claim for declaration that land held on trust - Sale order - Division of proceeds of sale - Whether costs order in favour of plaintiff should be set off against defendants' share of proceeds.

Practice and procedure - Summary enforcement - Compromise of proceeding - Settlement deed - Unconditional promise to pay sum of money - Default in payment - Enforcement application instituted in compromised proceeding - Roberts jurisdiction - Discretionary test - Whether summary enforcement clearly just - Criteria - Whether appellable error - Change of case on appeal.

Criminal law - Murder - Circumstantial case - Disappearance of accused's estranged de facto wife - Accused convicted of murder - Sexual offences - Incest - Accused convicted of incest against his own daughter at subsequent trial - Inadvertent disclosure of accused's prior convictions - Whether failure to discharge jury produced miscarriage of justice - High degree of necessity test - Standard of proof in relation to uncharged acts - Relationship evidence - Propensity direction not overcoming need to discharge jury.

Criminal law - Trial - Jury - Directions - Assumption that juries obey directions.

Criminal law - Offences against the person - Reckless conduct endangering life - Firearms offences - Being a prohibited person in possession of unregistered firearm - Evidence - Admissibility - Intercepted telephone conversations - Accused person in remand - Implied admissions - Hearsay - Mixed statement exception - Exculpatory statements - Exception not limited to exculpatory statements made at same time as inculpatory statements - Exculpatory passages from conversations wrongly excluded - Proviso - No substantial miscarriage of justice - Sentence not manifestly excessive - Crimes Act 1958 (No 6231) s 586.

Land tax - Trusts - Ownership of land - Assessment of trustee - Parcels of land held separately under 11 discretionary trusts and one unit trust - Assessment on aggregate value of all parcels - Whether trustee owner of different lands severally for different beneficial owners - Whether discretionary objects of trusts were beneficial owners of land - "Beneficial owners" - Land Tax Act 1958 (No 6289) ss 3 6 8 51 52(1).

Statutory interpretation - Presumption that words are used consistently within statute and that different words mean different things - Whether applicable in taxing statute.

Criminal law - Sentencing - Aggregate sentences - Continuing criminal enterprise (CCE) offender - Rolled-up counts - Impermissible aggregation - Components of aggregate sentence to be identified - Offender's pathological gambling addiction - Relevance - Offender not to be sentenced for qualifying sentences as CCE offender - Sentencing Act 1991 (No 49) Pt 2B ss 6G 6H 6I 6J 9

Criminal law - Sentencing - Discount considerations - Admissions not otherwise discoverable - Voluntary disclosure - Guilty plea - Utility - Remorse - Degree - Strong Crown case - Whether justifying reduced discount.

Contract - Breach - Terms - Partly written, partly oral - Implied terms - Termination of contract - Notice - Notice period not agreed - Whether implied term that contract not terminable without reasonable notice - Purported notice ineffective - Trial judge fixed a period of 12 months - No reason to interfere with determination of period.

Equity - Estoppel - Promissory estoppel - Reliance - Detriment - Agreement signed following representation that contractual notice provision would be renegotiated - Party reneging on representation and giving notice under contractual provision - Unconscionability - Assessment of minimum equity to compensate for detriment - Equitable compensation.

Damages - Breach of contract - Agency agreement for provision of financial planning services - Basis for assessment of damages and assessment of equitable compensation for breach of term requiring notice of termination - Damages for lost chance of obtaining further financial planning commissions not too remote - Measure of damages.

Criminal law - Trial - Fair trial - Crown prosecutor - Discretion - Witness named on indictment - Refusal to call or make witness available for cross-examination - Prosecutor's responsibility - Trial judge - No error in refusing to direct Crown to call witness - Witness not so unreliable as to justify Crown's decision - Prosecutor's decision productive of substantial miscarriage of justice.

Criminal law - Trial - Wholly circumstantial case - Murder - Patricide - Evidence - Absence of evidence of motive - Guilty verdict open.

Town and country planning - Planning authority - Planning scheme - Amendment - Validity - Proposed site-specific amendment - Notification requirements - Minister acting as planning authority - Powers - Discretion - Self-exemption from notification requirements - Minister's opinion that compliance with notification requirements not warranted - Minister's opinion as to interests of Victoria or any part of Victoria making exemption appropriate - Approval of amendment after self-exemption - Distinction between antecedent opinion favouring exemption and opinion favouring amendment - "Public interest" - Planning and Environment Act 1987 (No 45) ss 8 12 17 18 19 20 39.

Administrative law - Judicial review - Grounds - Discretionary ministerial decision - Unreasonableness - Planning scheme amendment devoid of any plausible justification.

Administrative law - Judicial review - Reasons for decision - Discretionary ministerial decision - No statutory duty to give reasons - Minister providing reasons in keeping with administrative protocol - Minister bound by reasons - Limited scope for admission of other elucidatory material - Public release of supporting documents - Dispute as to ascertainment of minister's reasons.

Criminal law - Sentencing - Multiple offences - Offender's existing custodial sentence - Totality principle - Ambit - Instinctive synthesis - Sentence imposed before cancellation of parole - Fresh evidence - Cancellation of parole - Prison conditions - Additional burden - Onus - Offender to establish lack of responsibility for onerous circumstances - Sentencing Act 1991 (No 49) s 16(3B).

Medical services and practitioners - Medical practitioners - Registration - Entitlement - Deregistered practitioner - Applicant guilty of serious offences committed while suffering mental illness - Medical Practitioners Board - Refusal of re-registration - Appeal - Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal - Conditional re-registration - Reduced moral culpability - Public confidence in medical profession - Whether conditional registration inconsistent with right to practise medicine - Statutory obligation to register medical practitioner unless ground of disqualification established - Whether residual discretion to register even where disqualifying ground established - "May" - "Public interest" - Health Professions Registration Act 2005 (No 97) s 6.

Practice and procedure - Appeals - Appeal from Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal - New point raised on appeal - Matter of public importance - No injustice.