Criminal Law Definitions
NO BILL
NOT GUILTY
ACQUITTAL
VERDICT BY DIRECTION
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
Legal Terminology
The legal system with its specialised terminology and procedures can be quite confusing.
When someone is arrested and charged with a criminal offence, the offence will be categorised according to its level of seriousness: SUMMARY or INDICTABLE.
Summary Offence
This is generally a less serious offence and should carry a maximum penalty of no more than 2 years imprisonment. Summary offences include common assault, indecent exposure, offensive conduct and some drink driving offences.
How and what happens next?
Charge
A person is charged with a criminal offence and will either receive a court attendance notice or is formally charged at a police station.
Most of the charges can be dealt with summarily, i.e. at the Local Court.
However in relation to more serious charges, i.e. indictable offences, can only be dealt with in superior courts namely either primarily at the District Court or for the most serious matters, charges such as murder, treason, tax fraud/evasion are dealt with in the Supreme Court.
Indictable
Varies in jurisdictions between the states and territories: typically tried by a judge and jury generally in the District Court as it is a serious offence with harsher penalties.
The most serious charges, such as murder, are tried in the Supreme Court.
Indictment
An indictment is the formal document which names and describes the elements of the charge or charges that the accused person will have to answer in Court.
The indictment states that the accused is required to attend Court when criminal proceedings are initiated. The indictment is generally only filed after a committal hearing.
Committal Hearing
This is similar to a preliminary hearing in the Local Court when the Magistrate will hear evidence from the Prosecution and commit the accused person to stand Trial.
Will the Case always go to Trial?
Sometimes the prosecution, usually the Director of Public Prosecutions, may decide not to proceed with the trial. This may arise if you or your lawyer makes an application to discontinue the prosecution proceedings.
NO BILL
The submission made to the Director of Public Prosecutions to discontinue the matter is known as a “no Bill” application.
If you are successful in your application, the case will not proceed to a Hearing at Court and the matter will be discontinued.
The Prosecution is answerable to the public, the Court and the judiciary to consider all matters including due process, the cost to the public purse and whether, if the matter went to Hearing, that the “average person on the street” would consider that a matter could be proven beyond reasonable doubt.
Sometimes, the Prosecution will “no Bill” certain charges of your case but decide to proceed with the rest of the charges.
NOT GUILTY
When the prosecution brings a matter to trial, the defendant who is standing at trial will enter a plea of “guilty” or “not guilty” of the charge or charges that are to be determined by the Court.
If, after all the evidence has been heard, the judge or jury does not think that the prosecution has been able to prove “beyond reasonable doubt” that the defendant has committed the crime or crimes, then a verdict of “not guilty” will be entered and the defendant will be free to go.
ACQUITTAL
An acquittal is a judgment or verdict that the defendant is not guilty of the crime with which he or she has been charged.
A verdict of not guilty is an acquittal. However, an acquittal does not mean that the defendant is necessarily innocent of the charge.
It means rather that the prosecution were not able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty.
Essentially a “not guilty” verdict and an acquittal have the same effect.
VERDICT BY DIRECTION
At any point in a trial, the judge may direct a jury to make a finding.
If the law is clear and the evidence points to a not guilty verdict the judge may direct the jury to make this finding.
When the jury accepts the judge’s direction, these findings are called a “verdict by direction”.
APPLICATION in CASE LAW
We have been involved in a number of cases where our submissions or those of our barristers, have resulted in “no bill” findings or acquittals for our clients.
Our cases have involved all types of charges from assault to fraud.
Agius v R [2019] NSWCCA 114
In a particularly complex tax case, we were able to take the case of our client, who had the benefit of a grant of Legal Aid, to the Court of Appeal and successfully have his conviction overturned. We also successfully applied to Legal Aid to have the benefit of a Senior Counsel and Junior Counsel because of the complexity of the Tax Law and the Judiciary Act 1903(Cth) S71.
History
Our client was one of two co-accused who successfully appealed a tax fraud and money laundering conviction that sentenced him to prison.
The case involved a complex area of tax law. However, in simple terms, the two men were charged with conspiring to avoid Australian tax liabilities by channelling the money through a series of entities based overseas.
It was alleged that the payment to our client’s company was a sham contract to syphon money and avoid paying tax.
However, the Court of Appeal found that the contract between the bank and our client’s company was not a sham.
The Court of Appeal found that the trial judge had erred by not directing the jury about how to look at the question of “derivation of income”. The trial judge had also erred by directing the jury about matters beyond the agreements between the companies and the source of the payments.
How Can we Help?
We are happy to discuss your options with you and to advise whether you have any defences to the charges you are facing whether they are summary or indictable and help you to navigate the often confusing legal process and legal terminology. Please contact us.
This is not legal advice and is for information purposes only.