DATA ON DIRECTED VERDICTS IN NEW SOUTH WALES IN 1992

The following data from the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research indicates the extent of acquittals by directed verdict in the District Court and Supreme Court of New South Wales during 1992. Of relevance is the total number of directed verdicts, the proportion of verdicts in that total which occur in cases of one or two charges only, and the incidence of directed verdicts as compared to findings of “inappropriate charge” or “guilty by verdict”. The data does not indicate the judges’ reasons for directing acquittal, and so the proportion of the directed acquittals which were wrong in law, if any, is unknown. Hence the data does not reflect accurately the number of decisions against which the Crown might bring an appeal if an appeal avenue was put into place.

ANALYSIS

In the Supreme Court and District Court of New South Wales during 1992, total number of:

• persons tried: 1,334
• charges: 9,197.
• directed verdicts of not guilty: 187 (2.03% of) charges.
• trials in which at least one directed verdict was given: 155
• charges in trials where at least one directed verdict given: 378.

Of the 155 trials in which a directed verdict accounted for at least one charge:

• 63 (40.65%) were disposed of completely by directed verdict.
• 89 (57.42%) resulted in directed verdict and charge not appropriate and/or no further proceedings.
• 26 (16.77%) resulted in charge not appropriate and/or no further proceedings.
• 39 (25.16%) resulted in at least one finding of guilt or an intra-trial plea of guilty

In the 92 trials where not all charges resulted in directed verdict of not guilty:

• 38 (41.30%) of trials resulted in a finding of guilt or an intra-trial plea of guilty.
• 87/297 (29.29%) of charges were dismissed as not appropriate or resulted in no further proceedings.

Of the 378 charges laid in all trials involving one or more directed verdicts:

• 187 (49.47%) resulted in directed verdicts.
• 87 (23.02%) were dismissed as not appropriate or resulted in no further proceedings.
• 54 (14.29%) resulted in a finding of guilt or an intra-trial plea of guilty.

The figures show that directed verdicts accounted for 2.03% of all charges heard in New South Wales District and Supreme Courts in 1992, and comprised the sole outcome in only 63 trials of which 46 involved only one charge. In trials where there was a further outcome, a finding and/or plea of guilt resulted in over 25% of cases. This would suggest that directed verdicts occur on a minor scale overall, and do not reduce trial results significantly.

Table 1: Key

NGD	Not Guilty by Direction
NGV	Not Guilty by Verdict
NA	Charge Determined Not Appropriate
NFP	No Further Proceedings Direction
NFP (CrA)	No Further Proceedings Direction: Crown Application
PAD	Plea Accepted in Full Discharge of Indictment
PDt	Guilty Plea Within Trial
Guilty	Guilty by Verdict

[Link to text version only of table 1]

Table 2: Incidence of directed verdicts per number of charges

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	11	Total
1 x NGD	46	39	20	12	7	0	2	0	1	127
2 x NGD		16	5	1	0	0	1	1	0	24
3 x BGD			1	0	1	2	0	0	0	4
Total	46	55	26	13	8	2	3	1	1	155
Percentage	29.7	35.5	16.8	8.4	5.2	1.3	1.9	0.6	0.6	100

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Table 3: Incidence of all outcomes per number of charges

Matter	NGD	NGV	NA	NFP	NFP (CrA)	PAD	PDT	Guilty	Total
1	46	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	46
2	71	9	18	0	3	0	1	8	110
3	33	12	18	1	0	1	2	11	78
4	14	9	18	0	2	0	1	8	52
5	10	6	12	0	3	0	0	9	40
6	6	0	3	0	0	0	0	3	12
7	4	6	8	0	0	0	0	3	21
8	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	4	8
11	1	2	4	0	0	0	0	4	11
Total	187	45	82	1	8	1	4	50	378
Percentage	49.47	11.90	21.69	0.26	2.12	0.26	1.06	13.23	100

[Link to text only version of table 3]

Table 4: Incidence of all outcomes other than the first directed verdict

Where two charges brought (55 matters)

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Where three charges brought (26 matters)

Matters	NGD	NGV	NA	NFP	NFP (CrA)	PAD	PDT	Guilty
1	2
2	1	1
3	1	1
4	1		1
5	1		1
6	1		1
7		2
8		2
9		2
10		1	1
11		1	1
12		1	1
13			2
14			2
15				1				1
16		1						1
17			1					1
18			1					1
19			1					1
20			1					1
21			1					1
22			1					1
23								2
24						1		1
25			1				1
26			1				1
Total	7	12	18	1	0	1	2	11

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Where four charges brought (13 matters)

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Where five charges brought (8 matters)

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Where six charges brought (2 matters)

Matter	NGD	NGV	NA	Guilty
1	2		3
2	2			3
Total	4	0	3	3

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Where seven charges brought (3 matter)

Matter	NGD	NGV	NA	Guilty
1	1		3	2
2		3	3
3		3	2	1
Total	1	6	8	3

[Link to text only version of table]

Where eight charges brought (1 matter)

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Where eleven charges brought (1 matter)