Non-adversarial justice

I decided to focus mainly on judging panels today – except for a session on legal practice where I am a co-presenter. Our first speaker in the first judging session I attended today was Judge Ian Dearden from the District Court of Queensland. He outlined his extensive workload and his circuit work. Much of his work is criminal. He described some of the therapeutic jurisprudence techniques he applies in judging. He noted that he had only heard of TJ comparatively recently but then appreciated that some of the judging techniques he was already using were applied therapeutic jurisprudence.

He shared with us a number of his therapeutic judging techniques in csentencing. Here are some of the tips that Judge Dearden kindly shared with us. He aims to give comprehensive sentencing remarks to inform defendants (and others) of the reasons for the sentence.