Court Appearances - ACT

At your first appearance, if you are legally represented, the registrar in the ACT Magistrates Court will read out your name and (if you are required to attend along with your lawyer) you will walk up to the bar table with your lawyer. The general criminal list is on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Any family violence criminal charges will always be heard before a magistrate on a Tuesday or Friday.

Your lawyer will do almost all of the talking for you, including entering a plea of not guilty if those are your instructions or alternatively indicating a plea of guilty, if those are your instructions. In most cases, the first appearance is merely procedural and your matter may be adjourned to a later date. For some minor matters, if a plea of guilty is indicated and the matter is ready to proceed immediately to sentencing, the registrar will transfer the matter to another court room for a magistrate to preside over the sentence hearing.

In other cases, if you have been arrested by police and not released on police bail your first court appearance is required to be a bail application. In those circumstances, you will either have made arrangements to engage a lawyer privately to appear with you, or a legal aid lawyer will meet with you shortly before court commences for the bail application. Bail applications commence at 10:00am every working day. If you are arrested late in the afternoon on a weekday, and not given police bail, you have to wait until the following morning to apply for bail. There is also a bail list in the ACT Magistrates Court on Saturday mornings. This means that if you are arrested by police late on Saturday morning and not given police bail, you will unfortunately have to remain in custody until your first opportunity to apply for bail from 10:00am the following Monday morning.

You are not legally required to have a lawyer, but having professional representation ensures your rights are protected, your case is properly prepared, and the court hears the strongest possible argument on your behalf. Attending court self-represented can be an incredibly daunting process and there are likely to be a lot of issues that you were not aware of, whether potential legal defences or important issues or material to obtain for sentencing.

An experienced criminal lawyer can ensure you have been given thorough legal advice about whether there are legal defences to your charges, whether technical or otherwise. If the matter is likely to be proceeding through a plea of guilty, they can give you realistic advice about the likely penalty and how to best prepare for sentencing. A lawyer can make a significant difference in the quality of the case put forward in either a defended hearing or sentence hearing.

If you fail to attend, the court may issue a warrant for your arrest or make a decision in your absence. For certain minor charges, if they are provided evidence that you have been served with the relevant summons or court attendance notice, a magistrate can sentence you in your absence, including recording a criminal conviction, but cannot sentence you to imprisonment in your absence. It is important to attend all listed court dates or have your lawyer appear on your behalf if permitted.

If at the commencement of the matter you had been arrested by police and either released on police bail or given bail by the court, and you fail to attend a listed court date, the court will likely issue a warrant for your arrest to be brought before court and there is also a real prospect that you will be charged by the police with an additional offence of Failing to Appear, which can be a relatively serious offence.

In some cases, particularly for minor matters in the Magistrates Court, your lawyer can appear on your behalf. This will apply if you have been issued a summons or court attendance notice for the charges. A lawyer can appear without your personal attendance for these types of matters for various procedural mentions, but not for the substantive part of the matter such as a committal hearing, defended hearing or sentence hearing.

If you have been arrested by police at the commencement of the matter and granted bail by police or court, you must personally attend court along with your lawyer on each occasion, including quick procedural mentions. The exception is if your lawyer successfully applies for an order from a magistrate or judge (whether during a court appearance or via email and an in-chambers order form a magistrate or judge) to have you excused if legally represented.

You should:

• Arrive on time and dress neatly.

• Bring all relevant documents and evidence of if you are legally represented, provide this material to your lawyer in advance of the court appearance.

• Be respectful to court staff, the Magistrate or Judge, and others in the courtroom.

• If represented, follow your lawyer’s advice and instructions.

• If there is a prospect that the court will make a licence disqualification order at sentencing, you should plan in advance to make alternative arrangements to get to court, other than driving.

If you will be attending court for a defended hearing in the ACT Magistrates Court, or a trial in the ACT Supreme Court, it is important that you carefully discuss the process with your lawyer well in advance. If there is a prospect that you will be giving evidence as a witness for the defence case at the hearing or trial, you should conduct one or more proofing conferences with your lawyer to ensure you are properly prepared for what can be a very difficult process.

There may be other things you need to do before attending court on the advice of your lawyer. For example, your lawyer may ask you to carefully review the police brief of evidence to ensure you can provide your lawyer with comprehensive instructions about your response, or a list of potential witnesses that your lawyer can speak to.

All criminal charges are heard at either the ACT Magistrates Court or the ACT Supreme Court, both of which are located at Knowles Place in Canberra City. Your summons, court attendance notice or bail papers will specify the court, date and time for the next appearances.

All criminal charges, whether minor charges such as a low-level drink drive or very serious charges, such as murder or sexual assault, commence in the ACT Magistrates Court. The initial procedural mentions are heard before a registrar or magistrate and for minor charges, known as strictly summary charges or other indictable charges that are heard summarily, a magistrate will determine guilt or innocence if the matter is contested at a hearing, or the sentence, if a plea of guilty is entered to the charge.

For more serious charges, known as strictly indictable charges or indictable charges that are sufficiently serious, the charges will eventually be committed (transferred) from the ACT Magistrates Court to be dealt with in the ACT Supreme Court. In the Supreme Court, if pleas of not guilty have been entered, most charges will be heard for trial before a jury, with a judge deciding any questions of law or admissibility of evidence. In trials of that nature, a jury will decide whether the defendant (known as the ‘accused’) is guilty or not guilty. Some charges, for example those not involving sex offences or the death of a victim, can be heard by a judge alone if a defendant chooses.

For any serious charges in the ACT Supreme Court where a defendant has pleaded guilty, or has been found guilty by a jury at the end of a trial, a judge will decide the appropriate penalty at a sentence hearing.

This varies depending on the type of matter. Procedural appearances may take only a few minutes, although could involve waiting 15-60 minutes for other mentions for other cases to be heard first, while defended hearings can take hours or sometimes a few days and jury trials in the ACT Supreme Court usually take at least a week or more. Sentence hearings usually take anywhere between 15 minutes for simple matters in the ACT Magistrates Court to a few hours for more serious matters.

Yes, in certain circumstances. The court is very likely to approve an adjournment of the first mention of the court date, even without reasons being provided. A court will be reluctant to adjourn a matter without a plea of guilty or not guilty being entered, if there have already been a number of adjournments granted. Your lawyer will also have to have good reasons for why a listed sentence hearing or defended hearing should be adjourned as the courts are often reluctant to do so.

The ACT courts have registry staff available who can provide general information (but not legal advice). Support services may also be available for victims of crime, young people, or those needing interpreters. Staff can assist in indicating the relevant court room for your matter, if you cannot see your name on the screens in the ACT Law Courts foyer on the other side of security. Depending on the situation, there are other services available at court including a Court Sheriff, security, court registry staff, Prisoner’s Aid and Legal Aid. If you have a lawyer they should be your first point of contact for most issues that are court related.

You are always entitled to make a report or complaint to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) if you believe you are the victim of an alleged criminal offence in the ACT. However, unlike in the United States, the decision about whether a charge will be proffered (laid) is for the police alone. The AFP (and ACT Director of Public Prosecutions: ‘DPP’) will generally take account of a victim or complainant’s views about whether they want a charge laid or not but the ultimate decision is with police or the DPP. For example, in many family violence matters, if someone in a relationship reports that they have just been the victim of a violent offence from their romantic partner or a family member, it is likely that police will charge that person, even if the victim does not want that to happen. In many cases the AFP and DPP may also decline to later withdraw a charge even if that is the wish of the victim or complainant.

In order to efficiently and effectively progress your matter through the courts it will often be necessary for your lawyer to speak to the ACT DPP prosecutor about your matter at court. This does not mean that your lawyer is not entirely representing your best interests, but it is a simple matter of professionalism.

It can be important for your lawyer to obtain new material from a prosecutor, or check what submissions a prosecutor intends to make when the matter commences. There are professional obligations that apply to your defence lawyer and the prosecutor and in most cases, it is in your best interests that they can speak to each other openly where appropriate. Again, this does not mean that your lawyer will not be ready to push back firmly against any submissions by a prosecutor that are not appropriate when the matter commences in court.

You should make sure you clearly discuss where and when you will meet your lawyer for your matter but for most standard procedural mentions, you will usually be asked to meet the lawyer outside the courtroom assigned to your matter around 5-10 minutes before the time listed for the matter.

For ACT Magistrates Court matters you can find where your court matter is by looking for your name on the screens on the other side of the security gates in the ACT Law Courts foyer. If your name has a non-publication order or it is a FVO or PPO matter (protection order) it will list the court matter number instead of your name (eg. FVO 111 of 2025). As an example, the Screen might list “Smith, John” in “MC1” which means Magistrates Court room 1. All of the ACT Magistrates Court rooms are up the stairs to the left of the screens. Supreme Court rooms are to the right of the screens.

For ACT Supreme Court matters you can also look at the same screens for your surname if there are no non-publication orders. You can also look on the ACT Supreme Court website for the Daily List (usually published from around 3:00-4:00pm the previous day) which will set out the court room and judge/registrar for your matter.

If there is a sheriff available near security or the screens or elsewhere near the court foyer they may also be able to assist in telling you where your court room is. If you have any doubts, you should call or text your lawyer shortly before the listed time for the court matter and they will be able to tell you exactly where the matter is.

For more substantive court matters such as defended hearings, trials or sentence hearings your lawyer might suggest meeting at court at least 15-30 minutes before the listed start time or might ask you to meet at their office 30 minutes earlier before walking across to court together.

If a registrar, magistrate or judge is already sitting on the bench when you enter or leave the court room you should bow towards them at the door. If there is no active matter on you do not need to bow at this time. If you are already in the courtroom and the registrar, magistrate or judge enters or leaves the courtroom you should bow towards them at the same time they bow.

You should leave your lawyer to do almost all of the talking for you. If asked a question directly by the magistrate or judge, for example, at the end of a sentence hearing, you can respond directly to them but if you have any doubts about what to say you can pause to speak with your lawyer before speaking. Whenever you are directly speaking to a magistrate or judge you should refer to them as “Your Honour”. You should refer to a registrar as “Registrar”.

You will generally be expected to enter any plea of guilty to a charge yourself. For example, a magistrate may read out the words of the charge, “You are charged that on 1 January 2025 in the Australian Capital Territory you assaulted Mr Smith, are you guilty or not guilty to that charge?”, and you can reply, “Guilty Your Honour”. At the end of a sentence hearing you might be asked if you understand the penalties given and you may reply, “yes Your Honour”.

It is generally appropriate that you remain seated next to your lawyer at the long table facing the judicial officer. You should stand whenever a judicial officer reads out the charge to you or you are responding to a direct question asked of you.

You should not speak over any other lawyer, registrar, magistrate or judge when they are already speaking. If you want to ask your lawyer something at the bar table you should whisper to them so that no one else can hear the conversation (noting that there are microphones at the bar table) or write your question or comment on a piece of paper for your lawyer to read.

Most ACT Magistrates Court general criminal lists start from around 9:30am and are usually heard in Magistrates Court Room 1 (MC1). Even if a matter is listed for a 9:30am start they will usually be one of dozens of other matters and it is likely your matter will not be the first to be mentioned. You usually have to wait for other matters to be heard before your matter is called although sometimes it is appropriate that your matter is called first so you need to be at court on time.

The general criminal lists are on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and are conducted by a registrar. If matters are ready for sentencing, they can be transferred immediately to a magistrate in another court room, either from 9:30am or 10:00am. Matters that are more than just simple and minor sentencing matters will likely be listed to commence from 2:15pm onwards.

Family violence lists start from 9:30am on Tuesdays and Fridays. Mentions and simple sentences are heard in the morning sessions and more complex sentence hearings commence from 2:15pm on that list.

Bail lists in the ACT Magistrates Court are usually heard in MC2 and commence from 10:00am. Matters that are listed for a defended hearing are often listed for a call over before a magistrate with multiple other hearing matters at 9:30am. If the magistrate decides that your matter should proceed that day to hearing they may refer it to start before another magistrate in a different court room at 10:00am or at some later time in the day.

It depends on the nature of the matter, but most hearings, trials and court lists generally will take a 15-20 minute morning tea break to start from sometime around 11:00am – 11:45am and a lunch break between 1:00pm to 2:15pm. Most court matters will not sit past 4:00pm – 4:30pm.

In the ACT there are a number of potential pathways in which charges can be dismissed on mental health grounds, or least where your mental health can be raised as a relevant issue.

The most common pathway is through section 334 of the Crimes Act 1900 (ACT). This section permits the court to dismiss a summary charge, without having to make any determination about whether or not you are guilty or not guilty of the charge, if it is considered ‘appropriate’. Any indictable charges can only be dismissed under this section with the consent of the ACT DPP.

The court must be satisfied that you are currently mentally impaired and then balance a range of potentially competing considerations to decide if it is appropriate to dismiss the charge under section 334. This includes the seriousness of the offence, the significance of the mental impairment and whether it contributed to the alleged offence, any criminal record and so on. The principle of this section is that, where appropriate, a court can prioritise mental health considerations and treatment over going through the standard court process of deciding guilt or innocence for a charge and any otherwise appropriate penalty.

If the court considers a s334 dismissal appropriate the court can either dismiss the charge unconditionally or dismiss the charge and refer you to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT) so that they consider whether or not to later make a mental health order or forensic mental health order.

Beyond section 334, the ACT Magistrates Court or ACT Supreme Court can find you not guilty of an offence through the mental impairment defence under section 28 of the Criminal Code 2002 (ACT). This is a high bar and dismissals under this section are not common. The court must be satisfied that you were suffering from a mental impairment at the time of the alleged offence that had the effect that:

a) You did not know the nature and quality of the conduct; or

b) You did not know the conduct was wrong; or

c) You could not control the conduct.

During sentence hearings for criminal offences, mental health can also be relevant as mitigating factor in appropriate cases. If your lawyer can obtain a forensic report from a psychologist or psychiatrist they may be able to submit that a lesser penalty should be imposed where your mental impairment contributed to offending and makes it less appropriate for you to be used a vehicle for general deterrence. The general principles on this issue are known as the Verdins principles and come from the leading authority of R v Verdins & Ors [2007] VSCA 102. The court can also take account of whether your mental impairment would make time in gaol more onerous than someone without a mental impairment.