Fitness for trial in Queensland.
A large body of case law has developed upon the common law concept of 'fitness for trial' and most Australian jurisdictions have detailed legislative provisions that purport to define 'fitness (or unfitness) for trial' and set out procedures to be followed when an accused may not be fit for...

First plea bargaining case in city.
Byline: Kartikeya MUMBAI: For the first time in Mumbai, an application for plea bargaining was made before a sessions court recently when a former Reserve Bank of India clerk-accused in a cheating case-sought a lesser punishment in return for confessing to his crime. In the...

Should Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt be spared the rod?
Byline: Vasundhara Sanger MUMBAI: Bollywood actors Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan, currently out on bail, stand convicted in two separate cases and face incarceration. After the judgment was passed on the two popular actors, few eminent people had expressed a desire to explore an alternative form of...

SC puts Dutt bail plea on fast track.
Byline: Dhananjay Mahapatra & Swati Deshpande NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to fast-track the hearing on Sanjay Dutt's plea for interim bail, with a five-judge constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan agreeing, in a departure from the practice, to allow the...

Hospitals to discuss settlement.
Byline: TIM CHRISTIE The Register-Guard Though a trial date is still more than a year off, McKenzie-Willamette Hospital's antitrust lawsuit against PeaceHealth could be reaching a turning point. U.S. Magistrate Thomas Coffin has ordered a settlement conference May 30, where "the presence of all parties...

Capacity to stand trial: old and new in New Zealand.
The law of fitness (or capacity) to stand trial is, in many jurisdictions, comprised of a mixture of older common law principles and more recent statutory rules. The key to understanding the area is appreciating how the principles drawn from these two sources interact. New Zealand law is used...

Re-classify IPC into four: Committee.
Byline: Bharti Jain NEW DELHI: Criminal offences covered by the Indian Penal Code (IPC) must be re-classified into four comprehensive codes on the basis of severity and appropriate response for better management of the criminal justice system, according to the draft national policy on criminal justice drawn...

Plaintiff's medical witness' testimony not admissible.
CASE ON POINT: Knox v. Univ. Health Sys. of E. Carolina, Inc., 2007 NCCA-258 (2007) S.E.2d--NC ISSUE: A plaintiff in a medical malpractice case must have an expert medical witness who has the same or more credentials as those of the physician or physicians who are allegedly...

Technological transparency: appellate court and media relations after Bush v. Gore.
I. INTRODUCTION: THE BIG CASE The start of the broadcast was only minutes away, and for the next hour it would become the most watched television news event since the bizarre night of Florida's botched presidential election a month earlier. An entire world was scrutinizing little Tallahassee,...

SC pulls up Gujarat for lapses in '02 riot cases.
Byline: Sanjay K Singh NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up the Gujarat government over the '02 riot cases, saying that it would not allow the derailment of the criminal justice administration system relating to the riots. The criminal justice procedure has been...