Law Report

Can grass roots community meetings help build support for the Indigenous Voice referendum in Far North Queensland? And the ACT government is considering charges over the unauthorised release of the inquiry report into the Lehrmann sexual assault prosecution. 

Think twice before you fire off that lighthearted emoji – there could be serious legal consequences. 

Hundreds of thousands of Australian residents, a figure now approaching one million, don't speak English well, or at all. The growing demand for interpreters and the shortfall in those who are suitably qualified to work in the legal sector is putting severe pressure on Australia's busiest courts. 

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 travell...

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...

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? 

In the race to decarbonise the economy, is there a risk of undermining the rights of Indigenous people? Mining companies Rio Tinto and BHP are proposing to develop north America’s largest copper mine on land considered sacred to the local Apache people.

Can the organisers of a sporting event be held liable for a participant's injuries? And new rules allow Centrelink staff to consider evidence of domestic abuse when assessing a person's relationship status to determine if they're eligible for income support payments.

We've all heard of 'sovereign citizens', a term referring to people who don't believe the law applies to them. But how much do we know about this group and its impact on the courts?

Is there a connection between the Fox News defamation settlement with US voting technology company Dominion and Lachlan Murdoch's withdrawal of legal action against the publisher of Crikey? And what do the sentencing remarks reveal about the secret trial of 'Witness J'?

What happens to tens of thousands of COVID-related fines in NSW after a Supreme Court ruling raised questions about their validity? How dangerous are the ageing oil tankers that help Russia dodge sanctions?

The ACT Legislative Assembly is considering a draft law to protect intersex children from undergoing deferrable and non-urgent medical treatments. And is the use of cryptocurrency really the marker of a sophisticated legal mind? A warning that this episode contains descriptions of surgical procedures.

In a legal first, a court in Western Australia has convicted three members of an outlaw motorcycle gang for displaying their club tattoos in public.

Former High Court judge Kenneth Hayne, a member of the Constitutional Expert Panel, speaks to the Law Report about the Federal Government's proposed referendum, and constitutional amendments, to create an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

An SAS veteran has been charged with the war-crime of murder under Australian law. A NSW  judge has quashed the prison sentence of a protestor, and a cosmetic company selling a Botox alternative wins in the High Court.

The High Court has overturned the murder convictions of four men found guilty of killing a man in an Adelaide cannabis grow house. And, if a prisoner has a tax-related question, who can they turn to? 

Lawyers for former US marine Daniel Duggan have lodged a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee citing 'degrading' detention conditions as his extradition case is set to return to court.

The US city of Seattle has banned caste-based discrimination and there are calls for Australia to legislate similar protections. And, the UN independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, Victor Madrigal Borloz, is in Sydney to address the WorldPride Human Rights Conference.