Early Guilty Plea Reforms

By Sophie Coulson

Introduction

The Attorney-General announced last month that the ‘Early Appropriate Guilty Plea’ (“EAGP”) Reforms proposed by the Law Reform Commission (“LRC”) will be implemented in early 2018. This post outlines the proposed changes and the motivation for each change.

In November 2014, the LRC published a report titled ‘Encouraging Appropriate Early Guilty Pleas’. The report made a number of proposals addressing the ever increasing delays in our higher courts. Submissions were made to the LRC by various agencies, all differing in views on the proposed changes. The one thing that they could all agree on was that something needed to be done to address the increasing delays and backlogs.

NSW Government announces criminal law reforms

The NSW AG today announced a number of wide-ranging reforms to the criminal justice system. While the legislation has not yet been released, it is clear that these reforms will have a major impact on the practice of criminal law in NSW.