Responsible Adult and Youth Justice Video and Audio Links for Weekend and Public Holiday Court
Information Note - Supplement to Practice Direction 8 of 2021
It has come the Court's attention that there have been difficulties arranging for the attendance of Youth Justice Officers and responsible adults when young people from regional areas have been arrested and are in custody and appearing in Northbridge Children's Court on Saturday, Sunday or public holiday mornings.
This difficulty is largely because regional court houses and police stations are not able to accommodate and arrange video links for responsible adults and Youth Justice Officers on weekend arrest matters.
Accordingly, the following arrangements will apply in future to facilitate the attendance of regional Youth Justice Officers (who usually have the best information available in relation to a child who has been arrested) and the responsible adult for the child.
When a child is arrested and is to appear before the Northbridge Children's Court, the arresting officer must notify the regional Youth Justice office of the listing and, if known, the contact details of any responsible adult for the child.
If the regional Youth Justice office cannot be contacted then the arresting officer must provide the information to the weekend duty officer at Northbridge Children's Court preferably by email or by phone 08 9425 3497.
Please note due to court preparation, the phone may not always be attended.
In future all attendances for regional Youth Justice Officers and responsible adults are to be by Microsoft Teams or telephone link rather than by video link to a police station or courthouse.
When a regional Youth Justice Officer is aware of the arrest of a regional child and intends to appear at the sitting of the court the Youth Justice Officer must email contact links for themselves and any proposed responsible adult to the Northbridge Children's Court no later than 8:45am on the Saturday, Sunday or public holiday morning of the appearance.
The judicial support officer must then make the necessary arrangements to link in at the time of the appearance by sending the MS Team link to the Youth Justice Officer.
The Youth Justice Officer will need to be in the MS Teams link (waiting in the lobby system) by 9:30am otherwise they may miss the appearance.
Judge Hylton Quail
President of the Children's Court of Western Australia
22 July 2022
Last updated: 22 February 2023