Law Report

Lawyers in the Northern Territory say the shortage in Indigenous interpreters has become so critical that it's contributing to the vast over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the criminal justice system.

This episode revisits the historic Federal Court decision to confirm native title over more than 40,000 square kilometres of sea country in the Torres Strait region last year. For the first time the claim brought together Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians to achieve joint native title outcomes. Traditional singing provided crucial evidence in the proceedings. Damien Carrick travelled to Waibene, or Thursday Island, to attend the outdoor sitting and to speak with traditional owners. (This program first aired in December 2022)

The Robodebt royal commission has made damning findings about government ministers and public servants who created and administered the automated debt recovery scheme from Centrelink recipients. And why is the technology company that created ChatGPT being sued in US courts? 

The National Anti-Corruption Commission commences operation this week. And a New Zealand researcher investigates how jurors respond to evidence in sexual violence cases. (Warning: the conversation discusses sexual violence and child abuse)

When refugees arrive in Australia, they face huge challenges. So, how do they access the support they need? Perhaps counterintuitively, a newly launched children's book is designed to help refugees get legal assistance.

Why did it take the justice system 20 years to work out that Kathleen Folbigg was wrongly convicted over the deaths of her four infant children? Does Australia need a better way to investigate possible miscarriages of justice?

A New York Judge is considering what sanctions to impose on a lawyer who spectacularly misused ChatGPT. And Australia's only Indigenous federal judge Matthew Myers wants more First Nations people to use the family law courts to get the best outcome for their children.

A judge has thrown out the defamation action brought by Ben Roberts Smith one of Australia’s most decorated soldiers against three newspapers. The judge was satisfied, to the civil standard of the balance of probabilities, that allegations Mr Roberts-Smith was involved or complicit in unlawful killings in Afghanistan were substantially true. 

Also, convicted serial killer Kathleen Folbigg has been pardoned and released from jail after 20 years behind bars. New scientific knowledge around the cause of death of her four children was crucial in creating reasonable doubt in her 3 murder and one manslaughter convictions.

The deepening crisis engulfing accounting giant PwC – is this a case of a few bad apples or is there a deeper structural problem? And the Victorian Law Reform Commission is proposing legislative changes to enable deaf and blind people to serve on juries.

When calculating a sentence, a judge weighs up many considerations, including remorse. But is it really possible to determine if an offender is genuinely sorry?