County Court Lawyers
Dribbin & Brown Criminal Lawyers is one of Victoria’s largest criminal law firms, and is responsible for running a large number of indictable matters in the County Court of Victoria, predominantly at the County Court of Melbourne, County Court of Geelong, County Court of Warrnambool, and the County Court of Ballarat. We are experienced County Court lawyers and have offices near all of these localities.
What type of criminal cases go to the County Court?
- In Victoria, the County Court handles the majority of the serious criminal matters that cannot be heard in the lower courts. The only cases that cannot be heard in this Court are murder, treason and manslaughter.
- All other cases can and are often heard in the County Court. Sixty per cent of the matters that are heard in the County Court relate to sex offences. Dribbin & Brown Criminal Lawyers run a large amount of sex offence jury trials each year.
- Examples of other common charges that are handled in the County Court only are; Rape, Armed Robbery, Sexual Penetration of a minor, culpabale driving, dangerous driving causing death, aggravated car jacking to name a few.
What type of Judges sit in the County Court?
- Judges as opposed to magistrates sit in the County Court of Victoria. Unlike the Magistrates’ Court, judges will often preside over jury trials that are running in the County Court.
- The average time that a Jury trial will run is between 10 and 14 days.
- Jury trials are very complex, and only solicitors with significant expertise should have conduct of matters running in the County Court. For more information about the County Court process.
How Do I look up Cases in the County Court?
- All of the courts have a way to check electronically for cases currently listed although you need to know the specific details of the person you are searching for. The only jurisdiction that cannot be searched online is in relation to intervention orders and Juvenile/Children’s Court.
- To see information in relation to your matter County Court listing.
- To see the daily case list at the County Court.
Experienced County Court Trial Lawyers
- Dribbin & Brown Criminal Lawyers are experienced criminal defence advocates and have significant experience running jury trials and pleas of guilty in the County Court. We brief only the best trial barristers and are listed on the VLA (Victorian Legal Aid) indictable panel.
- This means that we are one of a select group of law firms authorised to run indictable trials on Legal Aid grants although when matters are run through legal aid, it can reduce our choice of barrister.
- Some members of our firm are accredited as criminal law specialists; this means that they have undergone a rigorous three-part specialist exam and have been certified as specialists in the field of criminal law by the Law Institute of Victoria.
If you have a matter listed in the County Court, you should engage Dribbin & Brown Criminal Lawyers because:
- We run hundreds of matters in the County Court each year and are very experienced in the jurisdiction.
- We are accredited by the Law Institute of Victoria as Criminal Law specialists and, as such, understand complex crime.
- We are certified panel members on the Legal Aid Indictable Crime Panel which means that Victorian Legal Aid accepts our firm as experienced County Court Lawyers.
- We have extensive relationships with some of the best criminal trial barristers at the bar and, as lawyers, are very experienced in running all types of County Court matters.
If you have a matter listed at the County Court, then your first call should be to Dribbin & Brown Criminal lawyers, experienced trial lawyers. Schedule an appointment today, and very quickly you will realise that you are in the right hands.
Courts
We regularly appear at the following Courts:
- Appeals
- Assault Offences
- Asset Confiscation
- Bail Application
- Breach Offences
- Centrelink Fraud
- Children’s Court
- Computer Offences
- Council Charges
- Drink Driving
- Driving Offences
- Drug Offences
- Family Violence
- Firearm Offences
- Fraud Offences
- Infringement Warrants
- Intervention Orders
- Murder Trials
- Perjury Charges
- Pervert the Course of Justice
- Royal Commission
- RSPCA Offences
- Sex Offences
- Theft
- Traffic Offences
- Violence
- Weapons
- White Collar Crime
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