Conversation with County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd | Bendigo Advertiser | August 3, 2023 - video Dailymotion

Bendigo Advertiser

Bendigo Advertiser interview with Victoria's County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd about the court system.

Transcript

00:00 Well, my name's Peter Kidd. I'm the Chief Judge of the County Court of Victoria, so

00:07 I'm the head of jurisdiction of the County Court. The County Court is the principal trial

00:12 court in the state of Victoria. For example, we hold jury trials for criminal law, matters

00:22 ranging from rape to armed robbery to drug trafficking. We have some commercial matters,

00:28 we've got six judges who sit in commercial, which involves disputes, for example, with

00:35 banks or building disputes. And we've also got a large common law jurisdiction. The common

00:42 law jurisdiction deals with injury cases, personal injury cases principally, such as

00:48 road traffic accidents, where people have suffered injury, or workplace injuries.

00:54 Well, I really enjoyed sitting there this week, and one immediately gets the impression

01:05 when you come into that court what a calm and secure and safe environment it is, as

01:11 a modern court facility. In fact, I think it's a world-class justice centre. There are

01:18 many features of it that we just don't see in the old courts. The old Bendigo Court,

01:22 it's a beautiful building, and I'm sure everybody in Bendigo is proud of the old building, but

01:28 it's just not fit for purpose. Anyone hasn't been for some time. And if I could just give

01:33 a couple of examples of what we see in the new courthouse that we wouldn't see in the

01:37 old Bendigo Courthouse, quite apart from the beautiful architecture and its sense of connection

01:43 to the environment and its aesthetically pleasing nature. When one walks into the courtroom,

01:50 there's a lot of space. There are many meeting rooms and mediation rooms for privacy purposes.

01:57 It's very light. The acoustics are great in the sense that it's soft furnishings. People

02:05 can talk privately without fear of being overheard. There are safe places, which is very important

02:11 in a courthouse, where you might have two parties in conflict, such as family violence,

02:17 or two families in relation to a difficult criminal matter, maybe the family of the victim

02:24 and the family of the accused. And sometimes we need to ensure that there is separation,

02:29 they're able to remain separate, they're able to converse with each other and their practitioners

02:35 in privacy and with feeling secure. The court offers that. And perhaps the high point there

02:43 are these options there for an actual safe place which has a separate point of entry.

02:48 And there are separate ways of circulating throughout the building for different parties,

02:53 for example, witnesses and family violence. Or if a child has to give evidence from a

02:57 remote facility, they can go to this safe place and have the support of parents nearby.

03:04 Likewise with custody and the movement of prisoners, of course, they all have separate

03:09 and distinct entrances and circulation throughout the building. These might seem obvious enough,

03:14 but we don't see them in a lot of the old court buildings. In fact, we just simply don't.

03:18 Bendigo is one of them where we clearly didn't see that.

03:21 Technology, it's at the cutting edge from a technological point of view. And in fact,

03:29 I don't mind saying this, this is a reference to a case that I did the other day, without

03:33 talking about the substance of it. But we had the accused person come in remotely from

03:40 prison so he didn't have to be brought in to the courthouse. We had his counsel appearing

03:45 remotely for very good reasons. And we had two families involved, the family of the victim

03:51 and the family of the accused people. And we were able to ensure that they had access

03:56 to their courtroom either in person or remotely so that everybody could participate. And Bendigo

04:04 was able to provide the courthouse itself was able to provide a solution for us, including

04:10 at the last minute when we needed two people to find a place outside of the courtroom.

04:17 And within minutes we were able to accommodate them within a room via the remote system.

04:23 So that was just a good example of how modern courthouse ought to work.

04:29 I think that there's another feature that really strikes me about the Bendigo Courthouse.

04:33 And I mentioned before a sense of connection to the environment. And you feel that with

04:38 the natural light, especially on the top floor with the soaring windows overlooking the landscape

04:43 of Bendigo. But there's also the connection of the Jarra culture to the courthouse. We

04:51 see that in the way in which the courtroom has been specifically designed for Koori Court.

04:59 And we also see that in all the artworks throughout the building. So it was a court constructed

05:05 and designed in consultation, not just with the broader community, but with the traditional

05:11 owners of the land, which we're now sitting today and conversing. And in that sense, it's

05:17 also quite unique. I've never seen a courthouse so connected and integrated to the community

05:26 in which it sits and ultimately which it serves. Judicial officers reserve the community, but

05:35 the building does too. And people are coming there at a very difficult time in their lives.

05:41 Something's gone wrong, usually. They're very stressed. They're overwhelmed by the legal

05:47 process. And what this building does, it enables them to engage with the justice system in

05:54 a calm, safe way, as opposed to the old style building, which is aesthetically pleasing

05:59 from a historical point of view, but which were really designed to, in some ways, intimidate

06:05 and not welcome the court users. So I think that it's a building which has great civic

06:12 presence, which the people of Pindago can be very proud. And in short, it's outward

06:19 looking to how do we interact with court users. The court users are at the centre of that

06:26 building, well beyond just the judicial officers and staff, although we are court users too.

06:33 But the building itself recognises the court users, embraces the entire public that comes

06:38 into touch with the justice system.

06:41 Well, time doesn't permit me to go into all the detail today about what all the courts

06:49 do. But perhaps by way of example only, I think I mentioned before that the County Court,

06:56 we have, with the exception of murder, which I'll come to, we've got all the serious

07:01 indictable crimes. So rape, serious drug trafficking, violence where the injuries are very serious,

07:09 and driving cases which result in serious injury or death, by way of example. Comparing

07:16 that to the Supreme Court, they do murder and manslaughter, so we don't do murder and

07:21 manslaughter trials, and I'm only focused on crime here. And again, by comparison with

07:26 the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court has the Court of Appeal. And the Court of Appeal is

07:30 the Court of Appeal which sits above all the courts of the state. In fact, the Supreme

07:33 Court does, which is the most superior court. And if someone is, for example, convicted

07:38 of rape or dangerous driving causing death, and they want to argue that the sentence is

07:45 manifestly excessive, then they can appeal that to the Court of Appeal. Or if they want

07:50 to argue that the conviction resulted from an unfair trial, they can make that argument

07:56 to the Court of Appeal in the Supreme Court. The Magistrates Court, and again I'm only

08:01 focusing on crime here, I said that the County Court deals with all the serious crime. In

08:08 the Magistrates Court they deal with less serious crime. Some of it's very serious,

08:12 mind you I should say, and people get sent to prison from the Magistrates Court as well.

08:16 But it's generally less serious than what we see in the County Court. So they'll have

08:20 frauds and theft, for example, but at a lower level. Driving cases, driving whilst unlicensed,

08:27 for example, drink driving, driving whilst intoxicated, those kinds of offences. Family

08:33 violence is another example which the Magistrates Court deal with, and public order offences.

08:38 But when it gets more serious and the person becomes more exposed to greater periods of

08:45 imprisonment, then it moves up to the County Court. So that's a comparison between the

08:50 three jurisdictions, just focusing on crime. I should also say that with the Magistrates

08:56 Court, where they have sentencing people or convicting them after a contest, or sentencing

09:03 them to, whether it's a conviction of a fine or community correction order or term of imprisonment,

09:10 if they want to, if the offenders in those cases want to appeal those convictions or

09:15 those sentences, they can actually appeal to the County Court, and we hear those as well.

09:20 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Conversation with County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd | Bendigo Advertiser | August 3, 2023

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