High Court Registry closure

The High Court Registry will be closed from 4.00pm on Wednesday, 24 December 2025 and will re-open at 9:00am on Friday, 2 January 2026.

Any party seeking to file a document due to be filed between 25 December 2025 and 1 January 2026 has an automatic extension of time under the  High Court Rules 2004 (Rule 4.01.5) until 4:00pm AEDT on Friday, 2 January 2026 to file the document. Any documents lodged between 25 December 2025 and 1 January 2026 will be reviewed on 2 January 2026.

All inquiries for the High Court will be considered when the Registry re-opens on Friday, 2 January 2026.If a matter is of extreme urgency, you may telephone 1800 570 566, select Option 1 and leave a voicemail. In addition provide details by email to: registry@hcourt.gov.au.

Lane v The Queen

[2018] HCA 28
Judgment date
Case number
S308/2017
Before
Kiefel CJ, Bell, Gageler, Keane, Edelman JJ
Catchwords

Criminal law – Appeal against conviction – Application of proviso – Where appellant convicted of manslaughter – Where either of two acts of appellant may have caused death of deceased – Where trial judge erred in failing to direct jury as to requirement that it be unanimous as to specific act causing death – Whether "no substantial miscarriage of justice has actually occurred" – Whether absence of unanimity direction precluded application of proviso.

Words and phrases – "fundamental defect", "nature and effect of the error", "presuppositions of the trial", "proviso", "reasonable doubt", "substantial miscarriage of justice", "unanimity direction", "unanimous".

Criminal Appeal Act 1912 (NSW) – s 6(1).

Files
28.rtf (213.82 KB)
28.pdf (160.09 KB)