Section 14 Application for serious domestic violence offences 

Our client is a 23-year-old woman suffering from Anxiety, Depression and Post-Traumatic Stress disorder.

Our client was engaged in a verbal argument with her long-term partner of four years. In the course of the argument, our client threatened her partner with a knife. When police attended, she made full admissions to the offending. She was then charged with stalk/intimidate and armed with intent to commit an indictable offence.

Despite the seriousness of the offences, we advised our client that she appeared to be a good candidate for a Section 14 Mental Health Application. This was because she had a pre-existing mental health diagnosis and the offending appeared to have been a result of her conditions. 

After explaining the benefits of a Section 14 application, she instructed us to commence the process. We first enrolled our client with one of our preferred psychologists who had experience in preparing Section 14 reports. As we had worked with this psychologist before, we knew the report would be well-prepared and would address all of the relevant matters.

We also obtained a letter from our client’s treating psychologist as well as our client’s medical history. 

We filed all of our documents with the court and also prepared written submissions addressing the relevant factors under Section 15 of the Mental Health Cognitive Impairment Forensic Provisions Act 2020. 

At court we argued that the matter was more appropriately addressed through psychological intervention rather than criminal proceedings. The Magistrate agreed with our submissions and dismissed the case pursuant to a Section 14 order. As such, our client does not have a criminal conviction nor a finding of guilt against her. 

Our client and her family were overjoyed with the result.