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DISTRICT COURT ACT 1991 - SECT 54

DISTRICT COURT ACT 1991 - SECT 54

54—Accessibility to Court records

        (1)         Subject to this section, the Court must, on application by any member of the public, allow the applicant to inspect or obtain a copy of—

            (aa)         any process relating to proceedings and forming part of the Court's records;

            (a)         a transcript of evidence taken by the Court in any proceedings;

            (b)         any documentary material admitted into evidence in any proceedings;

            (c)         a transcript of submissions by counsel;

            (d)         a transcript of the judge's summing up or directions to the jury, in a trial by jury;

            (e)         a transcript of reasons for judgment (including remarks made by the Court on passing sentence);

            (f)         a judgment or order given or made by the Court.

        (2)         A member of the public may inspect or obtain a copy of the following material only with the permission of the Court:

            (a)         material that was not taken or received in open court;

            (b)         material that the Court has suppressed from publication;

            (ba)         sensitive material in the custody of the Court;

            (c)         material placed before the Court during sentencing proceedings;

            (d)         documentary material filed in connection with committal proceedings;

            (e)         a transcript of any oral evidence taken at committal proceedings;

            (f)         a photograph, slide, film, video tape, audio tape or other form of recording from which a visual image or sound can be produced;

            (fa)         a report prepared to assist the Court in determining a person's eligibility for, or progress in, an intervention program (within the meaning of the Bail Act 1985 or the Sentencing Act 2017 or the Intervention Orders (Prevention of Abuse) Act 2009 );

            (g)         material of a class prescribed by the regulations.

        (3)         The Court may permit inspection or copying of material referred to in subsection (2) subject to any of the following conditions:

            (a)         a condition that material that is sensitive material will be available for examination under the supervision of the Court at a place specified in the notice and at a time to be arranged;

            (b)         a condition limiting the publication or use of the material;

            (c)         any other condition that the Court considers appropriate.

        (4)         A decision by the Court on an application under this section is administrative and is final and not subject to any form of review.

        (4a)         Despite the preceding subsections, if 100 years have passed since the end of the calendar year in which material referred to in this section became part of the Court's records—

            (a)         in the case of records that have been delivered into the custody of State Records— section 26 of the State Records Act 1997 applies (to the exclusion of this section) to the giving of access to the records; and

            (b)         in any other case—a member of the public may, without any requirement to seek permission of the Court, be given access to the records.

        (5)         The Court may charge a fee, fixed by regulation, for inspection or copying of material under this section.

        (6)         In this section—

"sensitive material"—see section 67H of the Evidence Act 1929 .