Legal directions given to Victorian juries in criminal trials need to be simplified to ensure jurors understand what is going on, and to reduce the likelihood of appeals and re-trials, a report has found.



The Simplification of Jury Directions Project was presented to Victorian Attorney-General Robert Clark today with a number of recommendations for reform, including legislative amendments, which it is hoped will ameliorate some of the problems plaguing jury directions in this state.



The report found that jury directions - the legal charge given by judges to juries regarding relevant matters of law - are extremely complex and often unintelligible. The length of charges to Victorian juries is also longer than any other state.



Chief Justice Marilyn Warren said changes needed to be made as "a matter of real urgency" to remove what she described as an unreasonable burden on judges and an impossible task for juries. This was making directions-based appeals and re-trials inevitable.



"Retrials are bad for everyone," the Chief Justice said. "Witnesses have to give evidence again and sometimes memory fades or is affected. Victims have to relive their trauma. The state bears the large cost of the trial, appeal and retrial. Accused can be held in custody for years.



“One of the greatest costs is the threat to community confidence in the courts and the criminal justice system. The community must have confidence in our jury system."



She said juries underpinned criminal justice in this state.



"Changes in the law, especially sexual assault reforms, and the decisions of the High Court have made the task of judges in telling juries how to reach their verdicts – charging the jury – very difficult," she said. "The judges are committed to simplifying the process."



The five-chapter report was prepared by the Court of Appeal's Justice Mark Weinberg, with the help of the Judicial College of Victoria and the Department of Justice.



Multiple judges and legal practitioners with substantial experience in criminal trials were consulted. Consideration was also given to academic opinion and research into the psychology of jurors and how they approached their task, the report states.



It concludes that reforms are needed to jury directions about complicity, inferences and circumstantial evidence, evidence of other misconduct - tendency and coincidence, and jury warnings regarding unreliable evidence.



The amendments would mean that judges only needed to point out significant matters.



The Chief Justice said: "If adopted by the government, the Weinberg report will be a turning point in Victoria's criminal justice history. It is a matter of real urgency".