Dennis Denuto is a folk hero amongst legal practitioners everywhere. In The Castle (1997 by Working Dog) the bumbling suburban conveyancer (and his semi-functional photocopier) make it all the way to the High Court in a seemingly trivial property dispute. But when a laywer was recently accused of being a “Dennis Denuto”, a real-life defamation case ensued in the Queensland District Court. So is it defamatory to call a lawyer a “Dennis Denuto”?

Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was found guilty of ‘culpable homicide’ (similar to manslaughter) in the death his former girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. But in a subsequent appeal, the Supreme Court of South Africa found the trial judge had made 'errors in law', and instead convicted Pistorius of murder. Pistorius is now set to be re-sentenced by the original trial judge. We discuss the purpose of sentencing, how sentencing is regulated and the various sentencing options available to the judiciary.

And there was drama in Geelong recently when a police prosecutor brought capsicum spray into a courtroom. The magistrate adjourned the court immediately, and even threatened the prosecutor with contempt of court. The stand-off continued until after lunch with no matters being heard until another prosecutor agreed to assist. Did the police officer overstep the mark, or is it the magistrate that should be apologising for this embarrassing gaffe?