Administrative law - Tribunals - Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal - Practice and procedure - Powers - Compulsory conference - Notice requiring personal attendance - Non-attendance - Reasonable excuse - Explanation - Claim against solicitor and counterclaim - Solicitor electing to appear at interstate hearing on day appointed for conference - Orders made in favour of claimant - Power to reopen order - Tribunal refusing rehearing application - Status of compulsory conference - "Hearing" - "Proceeding" - Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998 (No 53) ss 3 83 84 87 89 100 120

Criminal law - Sentencing - Victim impact statement - Purpose - Content - Provision of assistance to court in determining sentence - Entitlement to make statement - Direct victim of crime - Impermissible uses - Information about third parties, perpetrators or opinions about sentencing - Sentencing Act 1991 (No 49) Div 1C ss 8K 8L

Criminal law - Sentencing - Drugs of dependence - Trafficking - Giretti charges - One of methylamphetamine and one of heroin - Single trade or business of drug trafficking - Double punishment - Commonality between offences and minimal additional criminality - Appeal allowed - Appellant resentenced - Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 (No 100961) s 51

Criminal law - Evidence - Admissibility - Fairness - Prejudicial effect - Probative value - Real evidence - Voice identification - Shots fired from motor vehicle - Identity of shooter - Driver of vehicle recording shots and voice on mobile telephone - Tape-recorded police interview - Use as comparison - "Admission" - "Representation" - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) ss 90 137

Evidence - Admissibility - Statutory scheme - Whether a code - Common law - Unfairness - Overarching discretion to exclude evidence - Continued operation - Whether statutory provision expressly repealed - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) ss 56 90 136 137 138 - Crimes Act 1958 (No 6231) s 464J

Stamp duty - Land rich provisions - Trusts - Valuation of land - Taxpayer acquired shares in company - Whether company "land rich" - Subsidiary operated power plant under joint venture agreement - Plant on subsidiary's land - Whether joint venture partner acquired equitable interest in land - Unqualified freehold interest - Right to receive rental not to be valued separately - Implied trust of electricity trading contracts - New argument not permitted on appeal - Penalty tax - Whether taxpayer took reasonable care - Duties Act 2000 (No 79) ss 71(2)(b) 74(1) 79(1)(a) - Taxation Administration Act 1997 (No 40) s 30(3)(a).

Criminal law - Sexual offences - Maintaining sexual relationship with child under 16 - Evidence - Admissibility - Possession and use by accused of child pornography - Trial judge directing the jury as to use of such material as rebuttal evidence - Accused's statements in police interview that he was only interested in adult women - Particulars of acts - Sufficiency - No error in admitting video recording of pretext conversation between complainant and accused - Sentence - Total effective sentence of 11 years and nine months' imprisonment with a non-parole period of nine years not manifestly excessive - Crimes Act 1958 (No 6231) s 47A - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) ss 135(a) 137.

Criminal law - Sentencing - Need for condign punishment - Motor vehicle offences - Culpable driving causing death - Driving while disqualified - Driving with excessive blood alcohol concentration - Speeding - Collision with rear of vehicle travelling in front in same direction - Recklessness - No statutory hierarchy of seriousness of categories of culpable driving - Offender's history of driving offences - Sentence of 10 years and six months' imprisonment with a non-parole period of eight years not manifestly excessive - Crimes Act 1958 (No 6231) s 318.

Criminal law - Proceeds of crime - Practice and procedure - Civil forfeiture proceedings - Stay - Pending related criminal proceedings - Whether stay likely to frustrate legislative intention - Whether refusal of stay inimical to applicant's privilege against self-incrimination - Stay granted - Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (Cth) s 319

Criminal law - Mental impairment - Schizophrenia - Intentionally causing injury - Making threat to kill - False imprisonment - Verdict of not guilty by reason of mental impairment - Non-custodial supervision order - Emergency apprehension - Review resulting in custodial supervision order - Appeal - Assessment of endangerment - Relevant considerations - Matters extrinsic to appellant's mental impairment - Direct and indirect causal links - Alcohol and substance abuse - Consequent non-compliance with medication regime - Consequent rapid decline into psychosis - No error in making custodial supervision order - "Because of" - Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried) Act 1997 (No 65) ss 39 40(1)(c)

Damages - Negligence - Measure - Black Saturday (2009) fires - Ignition caused by fall of assembly atop electricity power pole - Farming enterprise - Damaged fixtures, fencing and buildings - Repairs - Volunteer labour - Recoverability - Reasonable commercial cost of removal, repair and reinstatement.

Damages - Negligence - Mitigation - Fire - Direct damage - Whether obligation to mitigate required plaintiff to undertake repairs.

Real property - Voidable transactions - Motivation - Intent to defraud - Indicia of fraud - Inference - Property transferred to thwart enforcement of prospective civil liability - Civil claim for damages arising from alleged sexual assaults - Defendant facing criminal trial arising from same conduct - Transfer to transferor's wife - Adequacy of consideration - Natural love and affection - Wife's payment of transferor's legal expenses of defence of criminal charges - Property Law Act 1958 (No 6344) s 172(1)

Appeals - Appellate intervention in face of credibility findings by trial judge - Need for assessment of all relevant evidence - Trial judge's failure to properly evaluate evidence and give reasons.

Criminal law - Evidence - Admissibility - Co-offender's plea of guilty - Whether direction required as to use of bare plea of guilty - Whether evidence of co-offender's plea of guilty an admission - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) ss 60 83

Criminal law - Evidence - Unfavourable witness - Leave to cross-examine generally - Evidence affecting witness credibility - Prior inconsistent statements - Evidence of facts asserted - No substantial miscarriage of justice - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) ss 38 43 60

Criminal law - Evidence - Admissibility - Discretion - Opinion evidence - Lay opinion - Expert evidence - Identification evidence - Voice recognition - Not a matter of expertise - Judge correct not to exclude evidence - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) ss 78 79 135 137

Criminal law - Sentencing - Blackmail - Aggravated burglary - Armed robbery - Recklessly causing injury - Total effective sentence of nine years and six months' imprisonment with non-parole period of seven years - Sentences within range.

Criminal law - Inconsistent verdicts - Comparing guilty verdict with inability of jury to agree - Sexual offences - Joint criminal enterprise - Applicants convicted of indecent assault at first trial - Jury unable to reach verdicts on two charges of rape - Accused acquitted of rape charges at second trial - Circumstances relating to each charge substantially the same - Earlier guilty verdict inconsistent with inability of jury at first trial to reach unanimous verdicts on rape charges.

Criminal law - Sentencing - Murder - Rape - Categories of offence - Worst kind - Brutality - Offender's appalling history of violent offending - Total effective sentence - Life imprisonment with non-parole period of 35 years - Community protection - Leave to appeal refused - "Sentence" - Sentencing Act 1991 (No 49) s 6D

Defamation - Defences - Qualified privilege at common law - Statutory qualified privilege - Reasonableness of defendant's conduct - Criteria - Malice - Lange - Reynolds - Duration of privilege - Loss by passage of time - Defamation Act 2005 (No 75) s 30

Defamation - Defences - Publication of public document - Whether document "issued" by an officer of the government - Requirement that document be of genuinely official nature - Subjective purpose - Republisher - Reorganization of regional water authority - State government Minister supplying letter to water authority for its customers - Allegation that board members of predecessor authority had committed breach of trust - New authority posting Minister's letter on its website - "Issued for information of the public" - Defamation Act 2005 (No 75) s 28

Defamation - Damages - Role of judge and jury - Verdicts on publication, imputations and malice - Special verdicts on facts relevant to defences - Defamation Act 2005 (No 75) s 22

Defamation - Damages - Vindication - "Nailing the lie" - "Grapevine effect" - Evidence - Moderating factors - Defamation Act 2005 (No 75) ss 34 36

Defamation - Damages - Aggravated damages - Three actions heard together - Differentiation in individual increased hurt - Judge not required to condescend to artificial level of precision.

Defamation - Damages - Mitigation - Evidence - Connection with sting of libel.

Constitutional law (Cth) - Chapter III - Judicial power - Preservation of supervisory jurisdiction of State Supreme Courts as at Federation - Privative clauses - Domestic building contracts - Disputes - Grant of jurisdiction to Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) - Requirement that any claim commenced in a court be stayed - Validity - Constitution Act 1975 (No 8750) s 85 - Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998 (No 53) - Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 (No 91) s 57

Criminal law - Conviction - Sexual offences against children - Accused tried three decades after alleged offences occurred - Evidence elicited in cross-examination by counsel for accused and then by prosecutor - Bedwetting and self-mutilation by child complainants - Evidence irrelevant and prejudicial - Substantial miscarriage of justice.

Criminal law - Evidence - Admissibility - Hearsay - Statutory inapplicability - Previous representations - Requirements - Occurrence of asserted fact to be fresh in memory of witness - Delay of 20 years - Hearsay rule applicable - Admissions - Discretion to exclude - Appeal allowed - New trial ordered - "Fresh in the memory of the person" - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) ss 66 137.

Criminal law - Murder - Accused charged with two murders - Applicants convicted of defensive homicide of one victim - Applicants acquitted with respect to second death - Conviction of second applicant not unsafe and unsatisfactory - First applicant convicted as aider and abettor - Not possible to aid and abet defensive homicide - Conviction of first applicant set aside - Crimes Act 1958 (No 6231) ss 9AD 9AC

Criminal law - Sex offenders registration - Liability to registration - Suspended sentence - Sentence at time of commencement of legislation - Partial retrospectivity - Aggregate sentence - Sentence imposed for registrable and non-registrable offences - Whether Act penal - "As a result of having been sentenced for a registrable offence" - "Existing controlled registrable offender" - Sex Offenders Registration Act 2004 (No 56) ss 1 3 6 - Corrections Act 1986 (No 117) s 6C

Human rights - Charter - Right to work - Right to privacy - No arbitrary interference - Sex offenders registration - Child protection - Wide-ranging information reporting obligations - Prohibition on registered offenders engaging in child-related employment - Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (No 43) ss 13(a) 32(1)

Statutes - Interpretation - Legislative intent, purpose and objects - Whether choice of competing constructions - Whether ambiguity - Presumption against retrospectivity - Presumption against affecting fundamental common law rights or freedoms - Requirement of unambiguous language.

Practice and procedure - Class action - Discovery - Scope - Shift away from Peruvian Guano approach - Data created and stored electronically - Consequential discovery burdens - Black Saturday fires (February 2009) (Murrindindi) - Same defendants as in Kilmore East-Kinglake fire class action - Documents concerning electricity feeder line - Order that documents in Kilmore East-Kinglake fire action be treated as discoverable in Murrindindi action - 50,000 documents discovered in other action - Collaborative approach - Avoiding excessive discovery - Civil Procedure Act 2010 (No 47) ss 7 48 55 - Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2005 (No 148) rr 29.01 29.05

Negligence - Causation - Medical treatment - Hospital in-patient - Nasal surgery - Post operative treatment - Pain relief - Intramuscular injection - Alleged use of non-sterile needle - Arm infection - Factual causation - Necessary condition of occurrence of harm - Scope of liability - When negligence cannot be established as a necessary condition of the occurrence of harm - Jury direction - Whether appropriate for jury or judge to determine Wrongs Act s 51(2) issue - Whether defendant negligent - Whether negligence caused injury - Whether evidentiary gap bridged - Why responsibility for harm should be imposed where factual causation cannot be established - Whether an "appropriate case" - Whether in accordance with "established principles" - Importance of pleadings - Wrongs Act 1958 (No 6420) Pt X ss 51 51(1) 51(2) 52.

Criminal law - Mental impairment - Custodial supervision order - Replacement by non-custodial order (NCSO) - Application placed on community treatment order (CTO) pursuant to Mental Health Act 1986 - Relationship between two statutory regimes - Appeal against confirmation of non-custodial supervision order dismissed - Whether judge failed to take CTO regime into account - Confirmation of NCSO justified by risk of non-compliance - Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried) Act 1997 (No 65) ss 27 34 40 - Mental Health Act 1986 (No 59).

Criminal law - Commonwealth offences - Drug trafficking - Importing marketable quantity of border controlled drug - Evidence - Admissibility - False statements to customs officers during baggage examination - Implied admissions - Whether implied admissions constituted confession or admission - Whether accused questioned as suspect - Whether evidence of false statements should have been excluded - "Confession or admission" - "As a suspect" - Customs Act 1901 (Cth) s 195 - Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) s 23V - Evidence Act 2007 (No 47) ss 85 90 137.

Criminal law - Murder - Armed robbery - Verdict - Whether evidence sufficient to sustain finding of guilt beyond reasonable doubt - Fresh evidence and new evidence - Distinction - Whether evidence available at time of trial - Reasonable diligence - Evidence law applicable to new evidence - Credibility - Whether evidence might have led jury to different verdict.

Jury - Panel - Selection - Not corrupted by informant assisting in handing out of documents - Juries Act 2000 (No 53) s 30(4) - Juries Regulations 2001 regs 5 10

Jury - Empanelment - Constitution of jury - Order that members of first, discharged, jury return to panel whence second jury subsequently selected.

Evidence - Hearsay - Co-offender's out-of-court statements - Admissible as evidence of acts in furtherance of joint criminal enterprise - Unreliable witness warnings - Sufficiency.

Criminal law - Murder - Common purpose - Manslaughter - No viable case of manslaughter to be left to jury - Crimes Act 1958 (No 6231) s 3A

Constitutional law - Legislation - Validity - Unlawfully obtained evidence - Search warrant - Supporting affidavit not properly sworn or declared - Curative legislation making evidence admissible - Evidence Act 1958 (No 6246) ss 100 103 - Evidence Act (Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment (Affidavits) Act 2012 (No 4)

Criminal law - Sentence - Worst case consideration - Murder in course of armed robbery - Need for condign punishment - Double punishment - Allowance for criminality common to each offence - Sentence not excessive.

Criminal law - Sentencing - Appeal to County Court against sentence imposed in Magistrates' Court - Requirement that offender be warned of possibility of more severe sentence - Practical rather than theoretical prospect - Circumstances in which County Court judge's appreciation would arise - Warning not given - Sentence quashed - Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (No 7) ss 254 255 256 266 281