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Paul Horvath Criminal Lawyer

Paul Horvath Criminal Lawyer

Paul Horvath is an accredited Criminal Law Specialist, a qualification he obtained 1996. He has practised in Criminal Law since 1991.

Types of Police or Criminal Law Cases

Paul has experience in all areas of criminal law from minor theft, cannabis, assault and drink driving matters through to all serious crimes including trafficking in drugs, armed robbery, sexual assault and murder. Paul Horvath has experience in handling all of these matters including conducting numerous trials and having clients successfully found not guilty at both the Magistrates’ Court level and at trial before judge and jury in the County Court.

Apart from these matters, Paul also represents clients in defending Prosecutions by local Councils, the Victorian Workcover Authority, including Prosecutions under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (Vic) 1985, and or other Prosecution matters.

Get advice early

Paul has a history of representing a wide range of clients. Often it is helpful to involve a lawyer at the very early stages after being interviewed by the police or prosecution authorities. This is because any contact or conversations  with the police or prosecutors may be used as part of the prosecution case against you. It is important that you are fully advised. You need to know what to say, or what not to say, in a variety of situations. Sometimes it is important that you explain your circumstances fully to the police or prosecuting agency.

If you have an emergency, you can contact Paul on his office phone number (9642-0435), which will divert to his mobile phone. Paul has experience in dealing with urgent issues surrounding bail and bail applications, as well as urgent court hearings, such as a filing hearing.

Publicity Management

Some cases are of interest to the media, newspapers, and radio. However, a person charged will often want to minimise or stop any reporting of their case in the media. Paul has experience in dealing with this issue from a high profile case, and can arrange a strategy that will make sure your reputation, family and career are protected to the maximum possible extent. Paul has a consultant he engages on a regular basis for these issues.

Who will represent you at Court?

You will have some choice about whether Paul appears for you in court or not. Wherever possible, Paul will appear for you in court. This will depend on other court commitments Paul has, if the case is urgent. Otherwise, if the matter will be an extended hearing running for a longer period of time, Paul will brief only the best barrister to appear on your behalf, subject to you agreeing to who that barrister is. Where you request a barrister to appear for you at court, Paul can accompany them to court throughout your case if you wish.

Paul has worked with Australia’s top QC’s and a broad range of highly skilled barristers. Barristers range widely in experience, suitability to your case, and price. You will find information on barristers generally, and in particular, barristers who Paul will engage on your behalf at the following website: www.vicbar.com.au.

Bail

In many cases, persons charged with criminal offences are granted bail to appear at court on a later date. Conditions may be attached to bail, such as a requirement to report to your nearest police station on a daily or weekly basis; a requirement to surrender your passport; a condition that witnesses not be contacted; and the lodging of a ‘surety’ with the court. A surety involves someone other than you offering up their house or an amount of money so that the person charged can be released on bail. If the person fails to report to police, breaches a bail condition, or fails to attend court on the specified date, the person who has lodged the surety may lose their house or money.

If someone you know or a member of your family is being held in custody without bail, Paul can arrange to urgently apply to the court for bail. The more serious the charge or charges a person faces, the harder it is to get bail. The court needs to be sure that the person charged will appear at court on the hearing date, and will not commit further offences before that hearing.

Types of Court Hearings

We have discussed a bail hearing above. There are other types of hearings in the course of a criminal court case:

Filing Hearing
The first court hearing in a case where a person is charged with indictable offences which must go to trial in a higher court. It is usually a very short hearing where the prosecution advise when the brief of evidence will be served on the defendant or their lawyer.

Committal Mention
The defendant must state whether they will plead guilty or not guilty at this hearing. He or she must also state which witnesses they wish to call at the committal hearing for cross examination, and in broad terms the type of questions the witness will be asked.

Committal Hearing
Prosecution witnesses are called to tender their statements and are cross examined to test the strength of witness evidence and the prosecution case. If the Magistrate considers that there is sufficient evidence, the case is sent for trial before a Judge and jury after the committal hearing.

Plea Hearing
After a defendant has decided to plead guilty to a charge or charges, a Judge or Magistrate hears a summary of the offence together with a plea from the defendant’s lawyer. In the plea the lawyer argues why the lightest sentence should be imposed, referring to a person’s positive contribution in the community, hard work, good family background, psychologist’s report etc.

Mention
This is a date when a case can only proceed if the defendant pleads guilty. If he or she wishes to challenge any of the charges or allegations, they should transfer the case to a later date (‘adjourn’ the case) for a contest mention.

Contest Mention
This is an interim hearing or negotiation hearing. Witnesses do not attend court at this hearing. The police officer who laid the charge (‘informant’), a police prosecutor representing the informant, the defendant and their lawyer need to attend this hearing. If the defendant is prepared to plead guilty to any of the charges, or the police are prepared to withdraw some or all of the charges, the case can be finalized on this date. If the case cannot be resolved into a plea hearing, it is adjourned off for a contested hearing. The witnesses required for that final hearing are discussed, and how long that hearing will take.

Contested Hearing
This is a final hearing in a Magistrates Court case when all witnesses attend and give their evidence. Those witnesses are cross examined by the defendant or his or her lawyer. At the end of the hearing, the Magistrate decides whether they are satisfied of the defendant’s guilt ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.

 

Situated in the Melbourne CBD our company specialises in Criminal Law (Paul is an Accredited criminal law specialist.)

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