StandardCriminal Law
Lesson 30 of 30
Working draft for principal review. All 30 lessons written at full depth. Legal-basis notes marked "Requires principal review" need confirmation before release.
Module 5, Lesson 30

You made it through

Thirty lessons. What you now know, where this course stops, and where to go if you need more.

Reading time 4 minHave ready nothingApplies to NSW Local Court

30.1What this course set out to do

Purpose

The criminal justice system is not designed to be understood by the people it deals with. It has its own language, its own conventions and its own unwritten rules, and for most people the first time they encounter it is the worst possible time to learn. This course was built to give a person facing a possess prohibited drug charge the same understanding they would get across the desk from a practising criminal lawyer, in the order they need it.

If you have worked through it, you understand what the charge means, how the Judge decides, what to prepare and why each piece matters, how to conduct yourself in a courtroom, and what the result means for your life. That is not nothing. Most people walk into that room with none of it.

30.2Where this course stops

Limits

It was written for a first-offence, small-quantity possession matter in the Local Court, with a person prepared to do the work in Module 3. Lesson 11 set out the nine situations that put a matter outside that design. If your matter has moved into one of them since you started, or if the result was not what the preparation deserved, the next step is not more reading.

Get a lawyer if this applies

A consultation with the lawyers who built Standard

Prior convictions. Additional charges. A quantity near the traffickable amount. A search you cannot see the reason for. A visa, a registration, or a working with children check. An appeal inside the 28-day window. Any of these is a reason to speak to the lawyers who wrote this course before your next step, and a consultation is available through the contact form.

Request a consultation

30.3Thank you

Close

Thank you for reading. If this course helped, tell someone else who is holding a Court Attendance Notice and does not know where to start. That is the whole point of it.