Following the July 2020 release of the Online Application for a Court Event form, the Department of Justice and Attorney-General (DJAG) has amended the online form to extend to Childrens Court youth justice matters, as reflected in Practice Direction 1 of 2021 Online Court Event Applications.
The innovative form allows practitioners to lodge a request for certain events—sentence, adjournment, directions—for adult criminal matters in Queensland Magistrates Courts, electronically, 24/7.
In addition, DJAG has sought feedback from the registry, legal fraternity and judiciary to develop a range of other enhancements to make the form easier to use.
The big change for legal practitioners is the ability to use the form to adjourn for a plea of guilty to another location.
Latest enhancements to the form:
- Select matter type – ‘Childrens Court criminal’ now added
- Date of birth – to confirm either Youth Justice (10+ years) or adult criminal (18+ years)
- Address – Prosecution and Defence lawyer addresses are no longer required
- PDF – improved formatting to reduce the length to two pages
- Dates for the next hearing – three dates now show as an option, although up to six dates can be provided. For busy locations it is recommended to have more than one date option.
Changes specific to adult forms:
- Type of court event – now includes ‘Application for a s87 Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995’, and ‘Adjourn to another location’
- Reason for the new date sought – now includes ‘Plea of guilty’
- Orders/Directions Sought – now includes ‘Adjourn to another location for plea of guilty’, and ‘The matter to be listed for an application pursuant to s87 Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995’
- Adjourn to another location – when adjourning to another location for a plea of guilty, you will be required to choose the new location. The ‘Reason for new date sought’ automatically populates ‘Plea of guilty’. This cannot be unchecked or edited. You can only change locations for a plea of guilty.
Once an application is submitted online, all information and attachments are automatically sent directly to the relevant registry, submitter, and the opposing party, saving time for all parties. It is important that email addresses are input correctly. Do not enter any information or upload any attachments to the form which you do not want the opposing party to see.
You can access the forms on the Courts’ website.
A similar online form for Supreme and District Courts is currently in development.
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