As seen below the variations between Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland in regulating drones are significant however the other states also have their own frameworks. Victoria Victoria requires permits for all drone filming and photography regardless of intent or purpose. All drone operators regardless of weight must be a fully licensed pilot or a CASA certified operator.
To apply for a permit an application to Parks Victoria must be given 20 business days prior. The system in New South Wales only requires a permit if the filming and photography is commercial in nature and does not give specific guidance in relation to the use of drones.
Queensland Queensland lands somewhere in-between New South Wales and Victoria in the stringency of its regulations surrounding the use of drone photography in parks. In Queensland, a permit is required if the drone weighs over 2kg and more than 11 people are involved in the production or have filming structures. New South Wales regulation is an apparent example of how state regulation of this new technology is almost completely absent.
The states regulations also fail to grasp the emerging new independent creators operating as youtubers, vloggers and freelance content creator. It is the responsibility of the United States federal government to regulate the National Parks system while it is the responsibility of the states and local governments to administer non national parks.
Unlike Australia the rules surrounding the use of drones varies between parks within the states themselves depending on whether the park is national or non-nationally administered. Regulation 36 CFR 1. However, similar to Australia the National Park service can issue permits for special use of drones, while superintendents of specific parks can use there discretion for the use of drones in parks for recreation. The rationale that the national Park Service has supplied for the strict regulation of drones over national park airspace is to preserve the enjoyment of visitors, to protect the natural wildlife and protect the safety of visitors.
The American national park restrictions are so wide that they even apply to drones launched and operated on land outside the national park but flies in the airspace of the national park.
She advises clients on issues spanning the arts, technology, and commercial enterprise. Bankruptcy Basics. What now? There are several options for enforcing a judgment debt. One option is to make the debtor bankrupt. Why bankruptcy? When a person is declared bankrupt, a trustee will be appointed to manage the bankruptcy. This involves liquidating any assets available to pay debts owing to creditors. This means that, if the debtor is made bankrupt, the judgment creditor is in line to receive proceeds from the assets of the bankrupt debtor.
How do I make my debtor bankrupt? What is a Bankruptcy Notice? Complying with the demand means paying the debt. Applying to set aside the demand means challenging the demand. Setting aside a Bankruptcy Notice A Bankruptcy Notice can be set aside on several grounds, including the following: The debt being claimed does not exist; There is a defect in the notice, which causes substantial injustice or confusion; or The debtor has a counter claim, set-off or cross demand equal to or exceeding the amount of the debt being claimed.
If you want to enforce a judgment debt, or if you have been served with a Bankruptcy Notice, give us a call to find out where you stand. Celine Bodera is a lawyer at Forty Four Degrees and has a generalist practice. She works in areas of family law, commercial litigation, property, wills and estates. Bankruptcy and Deceased Estates. There is often confusion around insolvent deceased estates and what needs to be done to handle their affairs.
This article explores the concepts of insolvency and bankruptcy in the context of deceased estates and summarises the key legislative provisions that apply. Insolvency vs bankruptcy Whilst the terms insolvency and bankruptcy are often used interchangeably, they have distinct meanings.
Insolvency refers to situations where a debtor cannot pay their debts on time whereas bankruptcy refers to a legal process where an insolvent debtor is legally declared unable to pay their debts. Insolvency can, therefore, lead to bankruptcy. When a debtor becomes bankrupt, a trustee is appointed to administer the estate of the debtor. This involves realising the assets of the estate generally by way of liquidation for distribution amongst creditors.
Deceased estates Executors or administers of a deceased estate are tasks with administering the deceased estate. This involves paying the liabilities of the estate and distributing any remaining assets of the estate in accordance with a will or the rules of intestacy if there is no will.
To do so, at least one of the following conditions must be met: The deceased person, at the time of their death, was personally present or ordinarily resident in Australia; Had a dwelling house or place of business in Australia; Was carrying on business in Australia, either personally or by means of an agent or manager; or Was a member of a firm or partnership carrying on business in Australia by means of a partner or partners, or of an agent or manager.
Under section 39 of the Probate Act Vic Probate Act , an insolvent deceased estate that is not being administered under the Bankruptcy Act i. However, administering a deceased estate under the Bankruptcy Act may be preferred as it can allow creditors access to certain assets that would otherwise not be accessible.
If you need legal advice in relation to the administration of an insolvent deceased estate, give us a call. She works in areas of family law, property, wills and estates. Property Law and Emerging Technologies. Whilst people may think that blockchain technology can only be applied to the world of crypto-currencies and intangible assets, the reality is that it can be applied to real property as well.
Blockchain is an example of technology that can provide a high layer of security to information, by utilising unique hash values and networked transactions, and is promoting a fast moving and safe globalised method of exchanging a variety of assets, not just cryptocurrency.
How does blockchain work? Simply put, blockchain is a unique database, in that the way it stores its data is highly complex and secure. It does this by storing data in blocks which are chained together. When new information is fed into the "database", it is stored in a block with a capacity limit. When the block reaches capacity, it is chained to the next block of data.
The data blocks are time stamped and creates a permanent data series - essentially a permanent timeline. Land title data storage and blockchain The current Australian land transfer system uses the Torrens title system which is arguably quite reliable and secure. The Torrens title used a paper-based registry which recorded land dealings on a piece of parchment called a "Certificate of Title". The paper system was effective in recording land registration, but chaotic in administration.
In , all paper certificates became superseded by electronic certificate of titles eCT held in electronic databases. Thus, the need to conduct further due diligence and obtain historical searches are not necessary in a blockchain system.
Despite Australia's currently effective land registry system, there is potential for blockchain technology to penetrate the property market and change the way that we deal with land registrations. Buying or selling property using Blockchain From a purely consumer perspective, blockchain can revolutionise the way that we buy and sell property. Similarly, to the way we trade Bitcoin and Ethereum, property trading may one day be conducted solely online in similar fashion.
The benefits of such trading are that the transfer of land can be integrated within a blockchain land title registration system. The use of blockchain technology to engage in such transactions would also minimise transaction fees in buying and selling property. In addition, we could autonomise property auctions via this online trading, arguably, creating greater competition in property trading. Arguments have been made that trading via blockchain is more secure and accurate than current practices.
It may be a quicker trading method, which means settlement could occur instantaneously. This may one day help avoid delayed settlements and penalty interests as a consequence.
Finally, blockchain trading for real property is a highly transparent and an easy trading platform, which also has the capacity to facilitate international transactions for real property at the touch of a button. Tenants in Common. What you should consider before buying property with your friends. Purchasing property with a friend or family member often seems like a great opportunity for buying your first home or an investment property.
While dividing the financial resources to enter the property market can be both a logical and rewarding venture, becoming a co-owner of property can present particular difficulties.
Disputes can quickly arise when one co-owner wishes to sell their interest in the property, and the other does not. If you do not wish to sell the property or cannot afford to pay out the other half, your interest in the property may become vulnerable. So, what happens when one co-owner wishes to sell their interest and the other does not?
Unfortunately for the resisting party, if the dispute cannot be resolved, the sale will usually go ahead. While the Family Court has the jurisdiction to hear property disputes between parties who are married or in a de facto relationship, and the Supreme Court is limited to handling complex and commercial property divisions, parties with no such circumstances must apply to VCAT to have their matters heard.
Here, VCAT will hear co-owner disputes in situations where only one co-owner wishes to sell the property, or where co-owners cannot agree on how to sell the property or distribute the profits proportionately. When a dispute is raised and cannot be resolved by the parties, an application must be made to VCAT.
Proceedings will then generally be commenced where often the outcome is an order for the sale of the property and division of sale under the Property Law Act Vic - s 2 a PLA. For co-owner disputes, the sale and division of proceeds is the preferred option by VCAT unless the surrounding circumstances would deem it to be unjust or unfair s PLA Sherwood v Sherwood discussed the circumstances which VCAT will consider when proportioning the legal interest in property of co-owners.
Factors to be considered by VCAT will include any costs for maintenance and repairs to the property, renovations, and other financial and non-financial contributions to the property. Protecting your rights Due to the nature of the relationship when friends or family members decide to purchase property together, formal agreements are often neglected.
Importantly, always consider entering a formal agreement with specific terms to protect your rights to property and avoid the potential of litigation proceedings or relationship breakdown.
While this may not eliminate the potential for forced sale of the property by a co-owner, it can go a long way in protecting your property rights in the future.
Take Home Points In summary, purchasing a property with a friend or family member remains a valuable option for those aiming to enter the property market.
However, as outlined, co-ownership can present some underlying issues. Always tread carefully when deciding to purchase a property with a friend or sibling, because you never know if you may be forced to prematurely sell your interest on their grounds rather than yours. Hana Lee is a lawyer at Forty Four Degrees focusing on business start ups, transnational advice, technology, and commercial law. Legal Update for Tenants and Landlords.
On 29 March , new rental laws came into effect in Victoria. Urgent repairs must be made within 24 to 48 hours of the renter requesting the repairs whereas non-urgent repairs must be made within 14 days of the renter requesting the repairs. Importantly, it remains the case that renters must continue to pay rent in accordance with the rental agreement while they are waiting for repairs to be made.
If a renter wants to withhold rent from the rental provider until repairs are made, the renter can apply to VCAT for their rent to be temporarily paid into a special account held by VCAT. To avoid being evicted, a renter can pay unpaid or overdue rent within the notice period. However, this option to invalidate a notice to vacate can be exhausted. A renter can only invalidate up to 4 notices to vacate issued to them in a month period.
A possession order enables a rental provider to purchase a warrant to forcibly evict a renter. This meant that rental providers could issue notices to vacate without any reason. This is no longer the case. Make your house a home Renters can make some simple non-permanent modifications to their rental property without needing to obtain consent from the rental provider. Where consent is needed for a non-permanent modification, it cannot be unreasonably refused.
The plan may provide for representation by a public defender, by a private legal aide society or bureau, by a panel consisting of private counsel Section 18B of the County Law of NYS or by a combination of any of the foregoing. Counsel must be provided to anyone charged with an offense, other than a traffic infraction, for which a sentence to a term of imprisonment is authorized upon conviction.
The issue of competency can be raised at any time prior to the point that the defendant is sentenced. Being incapacitated is a condition that must be present at the time of the legal proceeding. These persons can be transferred to a psychiatric hospital for treatment and may be returned to stand trial once their competence has been restored.
It is an affirmative defense, meaning that the defendant has the burden of establishing the defense by a preponderance of evidence. According to Section An individual must be competent to stand trial before evidence of insanity can be presented to the court. Arrest: The criminal justice process begins when a person is arrested. Generally the police are required to obtain an arrest warrant before arresting an individual in his or her home.
Booking: Booking is the administrative record of an arrest. It is a three-step procedure which involves:. Once an arrest has been made, the accused is brought by the arresting officer to a booking facility. See section on Arraignment for a fuller discussion of the use of CJA reports at arraignment.
Agencies like CJA are located in other areas of the State, e. Options at Booking: On a charge of misdemeanor or violation, a local police department, pursuant to guidelines, has the authority to release an accused either before or immediately after booking. The accused may be required to post pre-arraignment bail also known as station house bail to secure later court appearance.
Unless released on an Appearance Ticket, the accused is brought to a local criminal court by the arresting officer at the completion of the booking process. As a safeguard against illegal detention in jail, the law requires that the arrested person be promptly arraigned before a judge.
If the arrest is made on a weekend, the person may have to be detained at a police lockup for as long as 48 hours before a judge becomes available. Complaint: The criminal complaint serves as the basis for the commencement of criminal proceedings and is prepared by the arresting officer or by the complainant i. In New York City, the arresting officer escorts the accused to the court building after the booking process is completed.
Note : in some counties of New York City, the District Attorney interviews the arresting police officers and complaining witnesses at the Central Booking facility. The Assistant District Attorney decides whether it is appropriate to send the case to court. The District Attorney receives a copy of the formal complaint, usually at arraignment. Arraignment: The accused is brought before a judge in the local criminal court for arraignment.
Counsel is appointed to represent the defendant at arraignment unless the defendant can afford a lawyer and the lawyer is present.
Ordinarily, the arraignment marks the first time in the criminal justice process in which the accused appears before a judge. At the arraignment proceeding the accused is:. Although all of the above-listed events take place at the arraignment, you may find it difficult to follow the proceedings if you are sitting in the arraignment part of your local criminal court. There are several reasons why this occurs.
Most defendants choose to waive a formal public reading of the charges against them. Often, if the courtroom is crowded and there is no microphone in use, the noise level makes it difficult to hear what is happening. Also, the large number of defendants being arraigned in a busy urban area often means that each case receives no more than two or three minutes of attention. Options at Arraignment: If the case is not resolved by the defendant pleading guilty to the crime as charged or to a lower charge, See chapter on Plea Bargaining , or by the charges being dismissed, the judge must decide whether the defendant will be released on his or her own recognizance ROR pending the next court date, or whether bail will be required.
Note: The judge may also decide in some cases to remand the defendant, i. The amount and form of bail set by the judge depends on the circumstances of the case.
Bail may be posted in cash or through the services of a bail bondsman who charges a fee established by statute and who, in most cases, requires collateral. Once bail has been posted, the defendant is released from custody. This process, known as plea-bargaining, has become the rule rather than the exception in many of the courts of New York State.
Plea bargaining generally entails:. There are many reasons why plea-bargaining may be appropriate, from either the prosecution or the defense perspective.
For example, plea-bargaining may by warranted as a means of shielding the victim of a crime from the trauma of public testimony or as an appropriate disposition for a first offender. The following statistics help to shed light on another reason why plea-bargaining occurs.
In order to try all those indicted, the court system would require massive increases in funding to pay for more court facilities, judges, prosecutors, clerks, court officers, court reporters and jurors. Before accepting a plea of guilty, the judge must determine that the defendant is voluntarily pleading guilty and knowingly giving up the right to a trial. The defendant should admit his or her guilt, and promises made to the defendant should appear on the record.
If the plea is to a misdemeanor, sentence may either be imposed immediately or there may be an adjournment for a pre-sentence investigation report by the Probation Department. On a plea of guilty to a felony, there must be an adjournment for such a report prior to sentence.
As a general rule, a plea of guilty to a felony can be taken only in a superior court See page 1—6 , although there is a procedure involving the waiving of indictment and pleading guilty to a superior court information which can take place in a local criminal court. Guilty pleas to misdemeanors may be taken either in a superior court or a local criminal court.
Preliminary Hearing: The purpose of a preliminary hearing is to determine whether there is reasonable cause to believe that a felony was committed and that it was committed by the defendant. If such reasonable cause is found, the defendant may be confined in custody pending grand jury action. In New York City, the usual practice is for prosecutors to proceed directly to the grand jury, avoiding the need for a preliminary hearing.
Such hearings are more common outside the City of New York. In New York State, a defendant held on bail or remanded on a felony charge must be released from custody within a specified time unless either afforded a preliminary hearing or a statement is filed by the prosecutor indicating that the grand jury has voted an indictment.
The specified time in question is hours from arraignment or hours if there is an intervening Saturday, Sunday or a legal holiday. The right to a preliminary hearing may be waived. These time limitations are contained in Section Holding a Defendant on a Misdemeanor Charge: The accusatory instrument charging a defendant in a local criminal court may be either a complaint or an information. Both are, in effect, affidavits.
The difference is that an information is sworn to by a person who has first-hand knowledge of the facts, while a complaint, in whole or in part, is based upon facts learned from another. In New York State, if a person is held in custody on a misdemeanor complaint, the prosecutor has five days from the arraignment not including Sunday to convert the complaint to an information by obtaining affidavits from those with first-hand knowledge.
If this time limitation is not met, the defendant must be released from custody. As this time limitation is contained in Section Some motions are procedural, such as a motion to adjourn the case or to delay sentencing. With few exceptions, the defense has 45 days to make its substantive motions. When evidence is illegally obtained, for example, such evidence is not admissible at trial. The defense lawyer will seek to exclude evidence, and a hearing to decide the motion may be held before trial.
Grand Jury: The grand jury is a panel of 23 persons a quorum consists of 16 persons chosen on a county-wide basis. The grand jury serves two functions, one judicial and the other investigative. In its judicial capacity, the grand jury hears evidence presented by the District Attorney and determines whether sufficient evidence exists to charge a particular defendant with a particular felony.
Grand jury proceedings are closed to the public and the secrecy of such proceedings is strictly maintained. Ordinarily while the grand jury is in session, the only people present are the Assistant District Attorney, the jurors themselves, court personnel and witnesses who may be called to give evidence. Any person who appears as a witness and has signed a waiver of immunity has a right to an attorney. Although the attorney may act as an advisor to his or her client, the attorney may not otherwise take part in the proceedings.
The foreman of the grand jury then files the indictment with the superior court. In its other capacity, the grand jury has investigative powers which allow it to investigate alleged misconduct or neglect of office by a public servant. After hearing evidence, the grand jury may file a report with the court which impaneled it with a finding as to whether such misconduct or neglect has occurred.
In this system, one judge handles a particular case from inception to conclusion, with assignment of the case to a particular judge accomplished in a neutral manner. Depending upon the county, such assignment may precede or follow arraignment on the indictment in the Superior Court. Following assignment, the parties and judge may enter into plea bargaining.
If such bargaining fails to result in an agreement, motions will be made and decided and a trial date will be fixed. Trials: A trial is the process by which it is determined whether the charges made against the defendant are established by proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. A defendant has a waivable right to jury trial in all felony cases and in those misdemeanor cases in which a sentence of more than six months may be imposed.
A trial before a judge without a jury is known as a bench trial. A jury in a misdemeanor case consists of six persons with one or two alternates. A jury in a felony case consists of twelve persons with up to four alternate jurors. The names of prospective jurors are chosen from lists of registered voters, licensed drivers and recipients of state income tax forms County Jury Commissioners may supplement these lists with names from other sources.
In general, the order of a jury trial is as follows:. All felony convictions require a presentencing report prepared by the Department of Probation. The judge may, however, order a presentence investigation and report at any time during the trial process for misdemeanors as well as felonies. The law now provides that the court may direct restitution to the victim in addition to any other sentence imposed upon the defendant.
Under New York law, there are provisions for increased penalties for persons convicted of a second or third felony offense. A person convicted of a felony after a previous felony conviction within the preceding ten years excluding times of incarceration is known as a predicate felon or a predicate violation felon if both the current and prior felonies are designated as violent felonies by the penal law.
A predicate felon or a predicate violent felon must be sentenced to state prison with a sentence of which the minimum must be one-half of the maximum. For example, a minor theft case may result in a conditional discharge for a first offender, particularly if there are compassionate circumstances or psychological factors involved. A person may be discharged absolutely with no rules imposed, although this is done rarely.
When a conditional discharge is granted, the judge places the person on probation for up to three years, and imposes conditions rules that may include hours of community work service, counselling or rehabilitation programs, and restrictions on where the offender can go and who they can have contact with. If an offender completes their probation successfully a conviction for the offence will not be recorded on a criminal record.
However, a sentencing judge could be told about the discharge if the offender reoffends. If an offender breaks the rules of their probation order they can be charged with a new criminal offence for disobeying a court order, and if found guilty, sentenced to jail. They can also be re-sentenced for the original offence. Conditional sentence order Parliament has dictated in the Criminal Code that imprisonment of any kind is a last resort, so there must be a serious offence, a criminal record or other aggravating features before a jail sentence is imposed.
It is up to the prosecutor to prove there are aggravating factors in each case. If the Crown establishes that the offence is one for which a jail sentence of less than two years is appropriate, the judge is then required by the Supreme Court of Canada to consider whether the sentence may be served in the community as a conditional sentence.
The Criminal Code sets out various requirements for a conditional sentence.
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