Court Appearances - NSW

At your first appearance, if you are legally represented, your lawyer will sit at the bar table and you will sit in the public gallery towards the back of the court room. Your lawyer will ‘mention’ your matter and tell the court that you are present.

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 judge will transfer the matter to another court room for another judge 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 are heard as soon as “reasonably practicable,” often on the same day if the defendant is processed before 12:00 pm. 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. Bail applications throughout NSW are now centralised and streamlined in a Bail Division of the Local Court. For parts of Sydney on weekends, and regional parts of NSW throughout the week, the bail list is conducted virtual (via audio-visual link) from Sydney.

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, whether for a bail application, for a defended hearing, sentence hearing or other appearances.

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 Local 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 judge (whether during a court appearance or via email and an in-chambers order from 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 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, 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. 

Criminal proceedings in NSW typically begin in the Local Court closest to where the alleged offence occurred. Serious matters may be referred to the District or Supreme Court. You can verify your appearance details, including time and courtroom, on the NSW Courts and Tribunals website, which lists proceedings for Local, District and Supreme Courts. 

Civil proceedings in NSW appear in the Local, District, and Supreme Courts. As a general guide the Local Court handles civil claims up to $100,000, the District Court handles civil claims up to $1,250,000 and the Supreme Court handles matters with no monetary limit. You can verify your appearance details, including time and courtroom, on the NSW Courts and Tribunals website. 

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 usually take at least a week or more. Sentence hearings usually take anywhere between 15 minutes for simple matters 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 NSW 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. Depending on your situation, there are other services available at court including a Court Sheriff, security, court registry staff, Justice Health, Community Restorative Centre, Justice Advocacy Service and Legal Aid NSW.  
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 New South Wales Police if you believe you are the victim of an alleged criminal offence in NSW. However, unlike in the United States, the decision about whether a charge will be proffered (laid) is for the police or ODPP alone. The NSW Police (and NSW Director of Public Prosecutions: ‘ODPP’) 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 ODPP. 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 NSW Police and ODPP 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 NSW ODPP 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. 

On the day of your court proceedings, you will typically meet your lawyer at the courthouse, often in the foyer or in designated consultation rooms. It is generally recommended that you arrive 15 to 30 minutes before your matter is listed so there is sufficient time to discuss your case and address any last-minute issues before entering the courtroom. 

The Local Court of NSW generally commences at 9:30 am.  

You can look up your appearance on the NSW Online Registry website for the Daily List (usually published 24 hours prior) 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. 

If a 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 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 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 judge you should refer to them as “Your Honour”.

You will generally be expected to enter any plea of guilty to a charge yourself. For example, a judge may read out the words of the charge, “You are charged that on 1 January 2025 in New South Wales 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, or the 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 Local Courts in New South Wales begin sitting at 9:30 am, while the District Court and Supreme Court generally commence at 10:00 am. 

It is recommended that you arrive at court by 9:00 am – 9:15 am. This allows time to pass through security, check the daily court list, and speak with your lawyer before the court convenes. 

Court matters can run throughout the day, often until around 4:00 pm, so you should be prepared to remain at court for most of the day. The court will usually take a short morning break and a lunch adjournment, with lunch commonly occurring at around 1:00 pm. 

In NSW 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 by filing a Section 14 application under the Mental Health and Cognitive Impairment Forensic Provisions Act 2020. This allows a magistrate to dismiss charges and divert you to treatment, such as a mental health plan or counselling, rather than proceeding with a conviction. It applies if you have a recognized mental health impairment or cognitive impairment. 

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 14. 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.