Case Study

In 2017, our client drove himself and two co-accused to a house. While at the front door of this house, a complainant was assaulted by one of the co-accused. During this incident, the complainant was punched in the nose, resulting in bleeding. Our client and the co-accused then got back in the car, and our client drove off. The complainant informed his brother about the incident, and they both went in search of the people who attacked the complainant. Later that night, there were several serious altercations between the complainant, his brother, our client and our client’s co-accused. Subsequently, our client was charged with manslaughter. 

The plea resulted in five and a half years of imprisonment with a non-parole period of three and a half years. This is an extremely good outcome, considering the maximum penalty for manslaughter is 20 years imprisonment, and our client was not eligible for an early plea discount. We lowered our client’s culpability by arguing that manslaughter does not coincide with a deliberate act, but results from negligence.