Ex-judge guides juries review
13 February 2008
Retired Supreme Court judge, Mr Geoff Eames QC, will play a leadership role in the Victorian Law Reform Commission’s new juries review, it was announced today.
Mr Eames will be a consultant on the commission’s review, which will identify jury directions or warnings that may no longer be needed and those that could be simplified.
Commission Chairperson, Professor Neil Rees, today welcomed the appointment of Mr Eames, who has written and spoken extensively about the need to improve the instructions judges give juries in criminal cases.
“The commission will benefit enormously from the wealth of experience and knowledge Geoff Eames has in this area,” Professor Rees said.
“He led the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration’s project on jury directions and his advice to the commission will be invaluable when we come to developing recommendations.”
Mr Eames was a trial judge in the Supreme Court from 1992 and Court of Appeal judge from March 2002 until 2007.
Before joining the Bench, he worked as a criminal trial lawyer for the Central Australia Aboriginal Legal Advice Service in Alice Springs; as a lawyer for the Northern Territory’s Central Land Council; as a lawyer for the North Australian Legal Aid Service; and was appointed Chief Counsel to the South Australian Legal Services Commission in 1980 and then Director in 1981.
He practised at the Bar in Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory; was counsel for the Indigenous Australians in the Maralinga Royal Commission; counsel assisting the South Australian Auditor-General’s investigation into the State Bank; and counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
Mr Eames has been an acting Supreme Court judge in the Northern Territory since his retirement from the Victorian court.
The commission must report back to the Attorney-General by March 2009.