Transcript
Hi, I'm Nick Hodgkinson, Co
founder of and producer at the
Australian Law Student.
We're really excited to this
year bring you a new short form
podcast called The Law in Four.
The Law in Four is targeted at
aspiring or first year law
students who are taking
introductory or foundational
courses or for penultimate or
final year law students who want
to brush up on those first year
topics.
The episodes are designed to be
bite size and in plain English
so that you can listen
conveniently.
We are going to, as with most
introductory or foundational
courses, start with intentional
torts and move to statutory
interpretation and tips for good
legal writing.
Later in the series, we'll cover
contract and criminal law
fundamentals.
As always.
If you have any suggestions,
please e-mail us at
team@theoslawstudent.com or
leave a comment in your review
on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Thank you very much for that
introduction, Nick, and in
today's episode of The Law in
Fall we will be discussing the
Australian court hierarchy,
which is fundamental knowledge
that all law students must
understand and understand.
Well, I'm your host, Oliver
Hammond, and just before we get
stuck into it, a short
disclaimer.
We are law students and the
podcast you're about to hear
does not constitute, nor is it a
substitute for, legal advice.
If you require legal assistance,
contact your state Law Society
who can direct you.
In all Australian states, the
hierarchy is very similar.
However, there are key
differences from state to state.
In this episode, the state of
NSW will be primarily discussed.
The hierarchy relies on a
court's jurisdiction, juris
meaning law and diction,
deriving from the Latin dictio,
meaning to say or declare a
court's jurisdiction or scope of
a court's authority is usually
dependent on the amount of money
involved in a case or the
severity of the maximum penalty
for an offence.
In NSW, the Local Court, also
known as the Magistrates Court
in other states, deals with most
criminal and civil matters.
The person who presides over
this court is called the
Magistrate with civil matters,
IE manages that generally
revolve around monetary disputes
and where no criminal penalties
are applicable, the local court
has the jurisdiction to hear
matters with a monetary value of
up to $100,000.
In criminal matters, local
courts can hear less serious
offences, known as summary
offences.
These include traffic matters
minus stealing and some types of
assault.
In more serious offences, known
as indictable offences, these
can include, but again not
limited to, armed robbery or
attempted murder, The local
court conducts committal
proceedings to decide if there
is enough evidence to go before
a higher court.
In these instances the District
Court or county court, as is
known in some other states, is
the intermediate Court.
In NSW, it has a civil
jurisdiction that can deal with
motor accident claims regardless
of the amount, and can hear
other claims of up to $750,000.
The court can also hear serious
inductible offenses normally
heard by judge and jury.
However, for the most serious
offenses, such as murder or
treason, it does not hear these
matters.
Now, unlike the local court, the
District Court has an appellate
jurisdiction, IE the
jurisdiction to hear appeals
from the local Court, Children's
Court and a range of other
administrative and disciplinary
tribunals.
Specialized courts like the
Children's and Coroner's Court
will be discussed in another
episode of the law in four next
the Supreme Court of NSW.
This court has unlimited civil
jurisdiction and handles the
most serious criminal matters.
It also has the ability to deal
with matters that are not within
the exclusive jurisdiction of
the federal courts, IE can only
be exclusively heard by the
federal courts.
Still, technically a part of the
Supreme Court is the Court of
Appeal and the Court of Criminal
Appeal.
Neither has an original
jurisdiction, IE they can only
hear cases if they're appealed
to from another court.
This solar appellate
jurisdiction means the Court of
Appeal can hear appeals from
civil matters from the Supreme
and District Court, along with
the Land and Environment Court.
The Court of Criminal Appeal is
the state's highest court of
criminal appeal, and it deals
exclusively with appeals arising
in criminal matters.
It is normally headed by a bench
of three judges.
However, in some very important
cases a bench of five judges
will sit the Court of Appeal and
the Court of Criminal Appeal can
review questions of law and may
overturn findings of fact.
They can also reduce or increase
penalties or awards of damages
or jail sentences.
The only Ave. of appeal after
this is to the High Court of
Australia for which special
permission must be granted and
on that note, this wraps up the
Australian court hierarchy.
If you would like further aid in
relation to court hierarchy or
anything law related, please
check out our website and our
podcast for further episodes.
Thank you very much.