Melbourne County Court Lawyer

The County Court at Melbourne is located at 250 William Street. The County Court has three jurisdictions: criminal law, common law, and commercial law. Within the criminal law jurisdiction is the Koori Court (established in 2008) and the Drug Treatment Court.

 

The County Court also provides the following therapeutic services within the criminal jurisdiction:

 

Mental Health Advice and Response Service
Court Integrated Support Program

 

The Melbourne County Court is an intermediate court in Victoria’s Criminal Justice System. It sits above the Magistrates’ Court and below the Supreme Court. Consequently, it has an appellate jurisdiction from decisions of the Magistrates’ Court and the Children’s Court and is the jurisdiction where most jury trials are conducted. Although most criminal law offences are finalised in the Magistrates’ Court some are beyond the jurisdiction of the Magistrates’ Court and must be heard and finalised in the County Court.

 

A small sample of these offences include:

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• Rape

• Trafficking a commercial quantity of a drug of dependence

• Cultivating a commercial quantity of cannabis

• Very serious assault offences (where serious injury alleged)

• Culpable driving

 

For a list of indictable offences that can be heard and determined in the Magistrates’ Court refer to schedule 2 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (Vic).
 

Serious indictable offences not able to be finalised in the Magistrates’ Court proceed to the County Court through a committal hearing.
The County Court can hear all indictable offences except for treason, murder, and murder related offences.
 

The County Court has the following locations:

 

• Bairnsdale

• Ballarat

• Bendigo

• Geelong

• Melbourne

• Mildura

• Latrobe Valley (Morwell)

• Horsham

• Sale

• Shepparton

• Wangaratta

• Warrnambool

• Wodonga