Publication by the Legal Services Commission of the fourth printed edition of the Duty Solicitor Handbook in October 2011 was made possible by a grant of financial assistance from the Law Foundation of South Australia Incorporated. This support from the Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.

The then Legal Services Commission Director, Hamish Gilmore, and Deputy Director, Gabrielle Canny, are to be thanked for the ongoing support they provided to this initiative, which has now seen the production of this online edition of the Handbook.

Thanks are also due to former Legal Services Commission Chief Counsel, Barry Jennings QC, who set aside generous amounts of his time to proof read the drafts of all chapters, and to provide the warm introduction to the fourth edition in the Foreword.

The fourth edition was extensively re-written by former criminal lawyer and education officer at the Commission, Danielle Misell. As well as revisiting and updating the commentaries on laws and procedures, Danielle enhanced the authoritative character of this work through the expansion of some chapters and the addition of others, such as ‘Drug Offences’. Expert views, sought by Danielle from many individual Commission lawyers, have been skillfully interwoven with the product of her own diligent legal research.

The origins of the Handbook can be traced to the first (pilot) edition produced at the Commission by Bronwen Waldron for use by staff solicitors. Suggestions arising out of that pilot prompted a revised and expanded version which became the second edition, which was published thanks to the authorial groundwork of Bronwen, and the input of Trish Johnson and Helen Wighton. This edition included The Annotated Summary Offences Act (South Australia) second edition, by Kelvyn Prescott SM (now Judge Prescott). The third edition, produced in 2005, was edited by Eric van Kruyssen, and it was prepared as part of a Duty Solicitor Kit for the Commission's lawyers.

This online edition owes much to the work featured in earlier editions, and to the various contributors to those editions who included: Chris Charles (Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement), Lana Chester, Tanya Chumak, Rob Croser, Luke Davis, Elizabeth Griffith (now DPP, SA), Adrian Hunt, Lucy Keller (now DPP, SA), Mark Kernich, Karen Lehmann, Greg Mead SC, Mark Seddon, Peta Seddon (Cth DPP), and Ron Shanks (now Dept. of Transport).

Special thanks are due to Di Broughton and Ros Emms in the library, for their assistance to me in research and editing; particularly to Librarian, Di Broughton for her long hours of patient work inserting hyperlinks into the text for the initial online version of the fourth edition. Acknowledgements are also due to the Commission’s past and current duty solicitors for their practical suggestions and comments, and to Nick Ramage for his help in co-ordinating the production of both the printed and the initial online version of the fourth edition.

Duty Lawyer manuals prepared by the Legal Aid Commissions of Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales have been the sources of many helpful ideas.

Editor, Christopher Boundy

Foreward

When I began practising in the criminal law over 40 years ago there was no such thing as a duty solicitor to assist unrepresented defendants.  The overnight custody list in the Adelaide Magistrates Court was often something of a (fairly sad) pantomime with many down and out defendants doing their struggling best to deal with sometimes combative Magistrates.  That has all changed with the advent of the duty solicitor service.  It is not only defendants who benefit.  The court is also a big winner.  In my ten years as a Judge in the Youth Court I derived great comfort from the daily presence of duty solicitors skilfully helping young people navigate their way through the trouble in which they found themselves.  I am sure that Magistrates throughout the State would agree with me.

This is the fourth edition of the duty solicitor handbook.  It is a practical guide to the work of duty solicitors who are working in the Magistrates Court and the Youth Court.  It is the culmination of what has obviously been a great deal of hard work by the many lawyers who have contributed to it their knowledge and professional skills.  Whilst its primary use will be by the duty solicitors of the Legal Services Commission, I am sure it will be a valued reference source for all practitioners who appear in Courts of Summary Jurisdiction.  Among its other virtues it provides an invaluable guide to the plethora of legislation in this area over the last 20 years or so.

A bound paper copy of this manual will become something of a rarity in the future as its contents become an on-line reference source, accessible to legal practitioners through the Commission’s website.  This inevitable change will allow for regular updates of amendments to legislation and court procedures but sadly – in my view (as one who has absolutely no desire to own a Kindle) –  it will also mean the eventual demise of the hard copy, with all its convenience, tactile appeal and scope for (generally indecipherable) handwritten notes.

The handbook is above all a practical work providing not only learning but much invaluable sound and commonsense advice.  For instance it deals comprehensively with the operation of the various specialist courts (including Nunga Courts – how things have changed for the better in the way we deal with Aboriginal people in the justice system than we did those 40 years ago).  Most of that advice is founded on the experience of those who have toiled in those courts and, like so much of the handbook, provides what I might call an insider’s insight into the daily work of duty solicitors.

I have no doubt that the handbook will be a most welcome and useful companion for duty solicitors at the Commission.  But I am sure it will have a much wider reading audience than that.  Experienced legal practitioners will find much practical wisdom within its pages.  Whilst the handbook is not intended to be an authority on criminal law and procedure in South Australia it will, I predict, become not just a valuable guide, but an indispensable one, for those who serve their clients in the important jurisdiction of the Magistrates Court.

Barry Jennings QC

Chief Counsel, Legal Services Commission 1985-89

Former Judge of the Youth Court