Trevor Croll Home page

It is most important that the Justice System works properly and is seen to work properly.

We do not want corrupt Police running break and enter gangs, running drug dealers, running car stealing rackets and worse and then putting innocent people in jail because they try to stop their crimes. When we do not have an open and accountable justice system the community can have difficulty believing in the system. Some members of the community have more power in the system than others who may be weak and vulnerable. Those who employ solicitors threaten the other side with exorbitant legal costs. Complex rules make litigation unachievable for most. It is not right that defending a legal action can have outcomes proportional to the money spent.

The Queensland legal system is possessed by a culture of cover-up, enshrined by laws made by the Queensland Parliament. Under this culture of cover-up shocking injustices are perpetrated upon innocent defendants. Persecutions we are not allowed to know about.

Section 154 of the Justices Act states that "the only people entitled to a transcript are those who have an interest in them". And this interest is determined at the discretion of the registrar of the court.

This means that not even a parent is allowed to obtain a copy of the transcript of a trial. It means that Reporters are not allowed to look at what happened in any trials that may interest them. But worse still, it means that Police can lie their victims into jail and no one is allowed to investigate the miscarriage of justice. The citizens are totally at the mercy of Police and the courts and can not do anything to prove the injustice they suffered in our courts.

Transcripts, when the registrar will provide them, are sold at $2.80 per page and every 15 minutes is about 30 pages. This means that anyone who wishes to appeal their conviction because they know they were innocent must pay hundreds of dollars to obtain the transcripts (typically about $500.00) from a traffic offense hearing. Transcripts are the copyright property of the State reporting Bureau and as such may not be copied and supplied to others. Not even a Judge can order that a copy be provided to a defendant as this would infringe copyright.

But here the appeals process is perverted. An appellant is not allowed to attempt to prove their innocence in an appeal. Instead the appellant must show to the higher court that, with the evidence and the law that was before the magistrate, he could not have reasonably made the decision he did. The Appellant is not allowed to bring to the appeals court evidence that proves his innocence. It will be ruled inadmissable as only the evidence that was led in the Magistrate's court is relevant evidence. If the defendant's witness got lost, or forgot to turn up the court will not let that defendant bring their witness along to an appeal to prove their innocence. Police can tell the defendant's witnesses "you can go home as you are no longer needed". In an appeal the defendant/appellant is not allowed to lead the evidence his witnesses would have given if they had been there to give evidence for him.

When taken into consideration that Police, Police prosecution and magistrates get to know each other very well it can be expected and should be expected that cosy deals get done and outcomes are often predetermined. Magistrates will rule that a letter can not be put into evidence or that the witness can not say what he was told. What I have observed is that kangaroo trials operate by sieving and filtering the evidence. Magistrates and Judges are very careful with the law and will often misuse the law to sieve the facts so they can convict. Where one witness's evidence does not conflict with another and thus that witness has credibility the Prosecution will work with the Magistrate to find a way to bring that witness's evidence into conflict so that the Magistrate will discount that evidence and thus feel free to convict.

The simple solution is:-

Repeal section 154 of the Justices Act.

Place all transcripts into the public domain and onto the Internet.

Ensure that on appeal a defendant/appeallant can bring evidence into court that proves his innocence.

Provide guidelines to the public on how to conduct their own appeals on the Internet, this to include all forms with examples.

Provide simple outlines of law for the many common situations that are fought in courts on the Internet.

Review the law of evidence to ensure that all available facts are known about and detailed on the public record before the trial, even if they are not used in the trial. This means a mandatory list of potential witnesses and their statements and documents and exhibits. This is just in case the Police and/or the defendant are hiding evidence.