Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Court System: An Overview
- Chapter 2 Gaining Information
- Chapter 3 Contempt
- Chapter 4 Defamation
- Chapter 5 Writing the (Newspaper) Story
- Chapter 6 Subediting and Photography
- Chapter 7 Television and Radio
- Chapter 8 Human Relations and Ethics
- Chapter 9 An Atypical Friday at Court
- Chapter 10 Suppression Orders
- Chapter 11 Future Directions and Issues
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 2 - Gaining Information
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Court System: An Overview
- Chapter 2 Gaining Information
- Chapter 3 Contempt
- Chapter 4 Defamation
- Chapter 5 Writing the (Newspaper) Story
- Chapter 6 Subediting and Photography
- Chapter 7 Television and Radio
- Chapter 8 Human Relations and Ethics
- Chapter 9 An Atypical Friday at Court
- Chapter 10 Suppression Orders
- Chapter 11 Future Directions and Issues
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Every five weeks or so, the High Court is on the move. Two or three judges will sit in a State capital to hold a number of short hearings. They are deciding whether to grant permission for appeals to be heard at the court, the pinnacle of Australia's legal hierarchy. Leading barristers operating in State and federal courts mix with litigants in person (members of the public presenting their cases without a legal advocate) as they try to convince the court to hear their full appeal. Not many succeed. The High Court heard 389 applications for special leave to appeal in 1999–2000, but only sixty-six were accepted for further consideration. In those cases, a larger panel of judges hears the appeal arguments at a later date, makes a ruling, and later publishes a decision which will affect future legal proceedings throughout the country.
The court sees its role as upholding the Constitution, maintaining the rule of law and acting as Australia's final court of appeal in civil and criminal matters. The judges will grant special leave where they see a legal issue as important enough to decide, or where there has been a significant irregularity in the way in which a lower court has dealt with a case. The special leave hearings usually attract a crowd. Law students, interested members of the public, lawyers and lobbyists often pack the courtrooms set aside for the hearings.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Court Reporting in Australia , pp. 14 - 40Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005