So what's important here?

Well, it's all important.

But, if I were on a really tight schedule I would have a look at Chapter 8, under the innocuous-sounding title of General.

What will make the Evidence Act 2008 so difficult for generations of legal students to come is that it's natural, given the title it has been given and the way it has been laid out, to assume that it's a one-stop shop on evidence law. And, come to think of it, that's the way it was sold, too.

Then you get to s 8 of that Act and realise that any contradictory provision in any other act is going to have primacy.

So for that reason alone, dip into s 328 through 389 and see how they modify the existing law.

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329. When accused etc. is required to appear at hearing

329. When accused etc. is required to appear at hearing

(1) An accused must appear at every hearing in the criminal proceeding against the accused, unless otherwise provided by this Act or the rules of court.

(2) A party to an appeal who was the accused in the criminal proceeding to which the appeal relates must appear at every hearing in the appeal, unless otherwise provided by this Act or the rules of court.

(3) The court may excuse a person from appearing at a hearing.

Notes

1 See section 328 for the ways in which an accused may appear.

2 Division 3 of Part IIA of the Evidence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1958 permits the appearance of an accused before the court by audio visual link in certain circumstances.

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328. Appearance

328. Appearance

A party to a criminal proceeding may appear—

(a) personally; or

(b) by a legal practitioner or other person empowered by law to appear for the party; or

(c) in the Magistrates' Court, in the case of an informant who is a member of the police force, by a police prosecutor; or

(d) if the proceeding was commenced by the filing, by a prescribed person or a member of a prescribed class of persons, of a charge under—

(i) section 18W(1), 26(1), 31(1), 47(1) or 79(1) of the Sentencing Act 1991; or

(ii) section 158 of the Infringements Act 2006—

by any other prescribed person or any other member of the prescribed class of persons within the meaning of the Sentencing Act 1991 or the Infringements Act 2006, as the case requires.

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322. Sentence in absence of offender

322. Sentence in absence of offender

The Court of Appeal may impose a sentence on a person under this Part even though the person does not attend the hearing of an appeal or an application to the Court of Appeal.

Note

The Court of Appeal cannot impose a sentence that requires the consent of the person, for example a community-based order, in the absence of the person.

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