Section 27 feedback from judges and lawyers

Lawyers, judges, and clients have found our reports to be readable, illuminating, and above all, useful in court. Their findings have often yielded significant reductions in sentence length and type. Below are a few examples:

“Without your report [our client] would be starting a prison sentence tonight.”

“[The Judge] gave a discount of 20 percent for guilty pleas and a further 20 percent for personal mitigating factors identified in your report. Like me, the Judge found the report very detailed and the information covered was relevant to warrant a substantial discount!”

“…the report was incredibly helpful. The Judge provided [our client] with extra credit based on what was in the report and he received community detention and supervision.”

“Wow. Very very good indeed. You do him and his story justice.”

“[The] report was extremely well received by [the Judge] who commended it warmly and compared it to other reports received by the Court very much to their disadvantage. It was directly responsible for a significant reduction in the sentence from the indicated 27 months to 22 months with leave to apply for home detention.”

“The Judge had read a number of other cultural reports that day from another report writer. The Judge made the comment in open court that your report was in stark contrast to the others. He stated that your report was thorough and addressed the parameters of s 27. He further said that your report corroborated what [our client] self-reported and set out matters which concern Judges when it comes to sentencing, in considering how a person’s background is relevant to their offending.

His Honour was so impressed by your report that he made mention of it when he criticised the other reports which appeared to simply plug in slightly different information into a template and were not personalised to the individual concerned. The Judge called into question the authenticity of those other reports and refused to place any weight on the reports in sentencing.”

“Just reviewed your report. It is awesome. Thank you!”

“The Judge commented on the s27 report being detailed, he even quoted para 46 of your report… [the Judge] gave a discount of 15 percent for personal mitigating factors… TThe client is very happy and he is stoked with the report.”

“The Judge said he read the report really carefully. He clearly took it on board.”

“Thanks again to you and the team for the report – it was incredibly well received by the Court and the Judge was very complimentary. The end sentence was reduced as a result.”

“I just wanted to let you know how valuable the s27 reports are both for sentencing and also when matters reach the Parole Board in terms of a great depth of knowledge of the offender.”

“Thank you very much for the comprehensive report. It was nice to see that not just the issues relating to the offending were identified but an explanation as to how and why these issues have developed over time.”

“[The Judge] referred at length to your report. She gave a 25% discount for “cultural factors and an expression of remorse” but made it clear that it was mainly for the cultural factors…It has made a big difference to the outcome.”