The Judicial College of Victoria has created a beautiful publication with the assistance of the judges of the land. It is the Victorian Sentencing Manual, freely available to the public, a kind of restatement of the law of sentencing reminiscent of the very useful restatements of the laws produced in America. I hope their next project will be the Laws of Estoppel Manual, but somehow I doubt the generosity of the State will extend that far. There are, however, other useful things on the same website, notably the Victorian Criminal Charge Book (used by judges in charging juries) and the Search Warrants Manual (the chapter on search warrants under the Legal Profession Act, 2004 is coming soon…). Since professional discipline is a quasi-criminal jurisdiction, practitioners in the field will no doubt find the Manual of assistance, especially if appearing before a tribunal presided over by a judge experienced in the criminal law. Have a look, by way of example, at the section on sentencing those who steal whilst in positions of trust, such as solicitors, at section 25.3.1.4 (the site allows neither a direct hyperlink to that section, nor the copying of text).
