Case and Comment: RE Broes [2020] VSC 128

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disruptive effect in Australian criminal law, primarily because the processes involved in criminal prosecution are distinctly social in their character. Trials have been delayed, judge-only trials have replaced jurt trials, and incarceration has become more onerous as correction facilities and prisons have gone into lockdown. For those who are in custody awaiting trial, this issue creates a specific problem linked to bail, as the courts strive to find a balance between ordering a person to extended detention in the absence of a conviction, and allowing the accused to return to the community. This issue is neatly illustrated by a decision of Justice Lasry in the Victorian Supreme Court to grant bail in a case involving serious drug offences, which has rapidly become a beacon in that jurisdiction.