The Queensland Lawyer update: July 2015

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The latest issue of the The Queensland Lawyer (Volume 35 Part 2) contains the following material:

EDITORIAL

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW – Bill Lane and Eleanor Dickens

• Uelese v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2015] HCA 15 

COMMERCIAL LAW – Dr Clive Turner

• A bank’s liability for the advice of its financial planner: Westpac Banking Corp v Jamieson [2015] QCA 50; (2015) 294 FLR 48

CONVEYANCING AND PROPERTY LAW – Dr Bill Dixon

• Compensation or consideration for a statutory right of user?

CRIMINAL LAW – Andrew M West

• Particulars in workplace health and safety prosecutions
• Alleging previous convictions in the magistrates court

HEALTH AND GUARDIANSHIP LAW – Dr Malcolm Smith

• Children, consent and the refusal of blood: A recent Queensland case

INDUSTRIAL LAW – Dr Kristy Richardson

• Fighting at work – Disentitling and serious and wilful misconduct?

Article

Pleading guilty online in Queensland: Efficiency at the expense of justice – Mikayla Brier-Mills

In 2014, Queensland introduced a Pleading Guilty Online (PGO) system to allow people charged with relatively minor traffic offences to plead guilty through an internet portal. This article argues that the system prioritises efficiency over justice, and ignores the barriers faced by many people who come into contact with the justice system, including literacy, language and communication problems. The simplicity of the online platform belies the fairness and certainty that is common (and often challenged) in online contracts, and there are inadequate protections to authenticate user identity. In addition, the system removes the informed and contextualised decision-making of a magistrate, including the appropriateness of any penalty. This article concludes that the PGO system could lead to unfair outcomes. As such, the system should recognise the vulnerability of some users, should not be expanded to other offences, and should be improved to collect more information.

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BOOK REVIEWS – Judge Michael Shanahan DCJ

• The Law of Misleading or Deceptive Conduct – Colin Lockhart reviewed by Andrew Quinn
• Native Title in Australia – Richard Barlett reviewed by Daniel Welsh
• Criminal Law in Queensland and Western Australia: Cases and Commentary – Eric Colvin, Justice John McKechnie and Jodie O’Leary reviewed by David McGrath
• Law of Confidentiality – G E Dal Pont reviewed by Thomas Serafin

REPORT – Federal Circuit Court Judge Michael Jarrett

• FCA v Commissioner of Queensland Police Service (Family law and child welfare, Magistrates)

For the pdf version of the table of contents, click here: Qld Lawyer Vol 35 No 2 Contents.

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