Edition 1 · Friday, October 30, 2026
The desk read 60 decisions from 15 jurisdictions in the last seven days. Ineffective counsel came up most, in 8.
Lesson of the day · Test · New Zealand
The reasons the source lists include youth, trouble getting competent advice, and a legal issue that emerged later.
Tagged by software and not analysed. A tag says nothing about the result.
The accused argued the trial judge mishandled a witness who needed special caution, that new bail documents showed a motive to lie, and that the verdict was unreasonable. The court rejected all three, and left open whether the Vetrovec caution applies in sexual offence cases at all.
A seven judge majority held the trial judge should have kept Awale Hussein's youth findings and violent convictions from the jury. Yet the evidence on identity and intent was so strong that the Court applied the curative proviso and dismissed the appeal.
Matthew Berg argued the trial judge rejected his evidence simply because he believed the complainant. The Supreme Court of Canada found no error on these facts, but used the case to say that a conviction can never rest only on accepting the complainant's account.
General information, not legal advice. 120 lessons and 40 grounds so far, each with its authority.