As criminal law becomes increasingly shaped by digital communications, complex evidentiary disputes and emerging technologies, you need to be able to navigate key evidential issues with confidence.

Throughout this masterclass examine specific evidentiary issues that regularly arise in criminal proceedings and can have a significant impact on trial outcomes. Through practical analysis of digital communications, tendency evidence, witness credibility and prior statements, and emerging technology-driven evidentiary challenges, gain practical guidance on admissibility, reliability, authenticity and strategic decision-making in modern criminal matters.

Presenters

Michal Mantaj, Director and Trial Advocate, Conditsis Lawyer
Michal has over 18 years experience as a criminal law practitioner. In that time, Michal has advised and represented thousands of clients charged with criminal offences spaning the whole spectrum of the criminal law, from minor traffic matters to offences attracting a maximum penalty of life imprisonment such as murder and large scale drug trafficking. He has appeared as solicitor advocate in the Local, District, Supreme Courts and the Court of Appeal and Court of Criminal Appeal. Additionally, Michal is a Law Society accredited specialist in criminal law; a member and deputy chair of the Law Society Criminal Law Committee; a former lecturer at a Traffic Offender Intervention Program and frequently presents papers at MCLE seminars. Michal is a director at Conditsis Lawyers, where Michal and other advocates, accept instructions from other solicitors to appear in all matters including trials, in much the same way as solicitors would instruct counsel.

Lisa-Claire Hutchinson, Barrister, Forbes Chambers
Lisa-Claire was called to the Bar in 2013. Her principal area of practice is criminal law. She appears in appeals in the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal; in jury trials and sentences in the NSW District Court, hearings and coronial inquests in the Local Court and Coroner’s Court of NSW and in various commissions of inquiry. Before being called to the Bar, Lisa-Claire worked as a solicitor at the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT. She narrowly avoided a career in commercial litigation when in 2009 she volunteered as a Trial Chamber Associate at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Her exposure there to advocacy and to international criminal law led her to pursue criminal law upon her return to Australia.

Tanya Skvortsova, Barrister, Stawell Chambers
Tanya Skvortsova is a trial advocate who came to the Bar in 2018. She most frequently appears for individuals accused of sexual misconduct in the criminal jurisdiction, in disciplinary matters and in civil proceedings. Prior to coming to the Bar Tanya worked for various prosecutorial agencies and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. She holds a Master of Science (Criminal Justice) from the University of Alabama, with a specialist focus on sexual offending.


Emma Turnbull, Director, Emma Turnbull Lawyers
Emma Turnbull is a Director and founding partner of Emma Turnbull Lawyers Pty Ltd. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and a Master of Laws (LLM) from Monash University. Emma is an Accredited Criminal Law Specialist with the Law Institute of Victoria A passionate and forceful advocate, Emma appears regularly in all courts across the Victorian criminal law jurisdiction. This includes appearing as Counsel and instructing solicitor in Supreme and County Court trials, mental impairment trials, County Court and Magistrates’ Court plea hearings and bail applications. She is an industry leader and a forceful advocate for change and development of criminal law practice. Emma has been acknowledged annually as a leading criminal defence lawyer in Doyle’s Guide (as has her firm), she has been a finalist in the Australian Law Awards and Partner of the Year awards, and most relevant to the topic today she is speaking to – Emma won the national Lawyers Weekly 2024 Wellness Advocate of the Year award.


Dr Felicity Gerry KC, Crockett Chambers
Dr Felicity Gerry KC is an international barrister at Crockett Chambers, Melbourne and Libertas Chambers, London, Her practice includes admission before the International Criminal Court and the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, as well as the Dubai International Financial Centre, with ad hoc admission in Hong Kong, Gibraltar and the Cook Islands, positioning her at the forefront of comparative and transnational approaches to criminal law and procedure. Felicity has long expertise prosecuting or defending in serious sexual offence cases. She is a co-author of Bourke’s Criminal Practice Guide card for Victoria on modern slavery, sex work, children, animal law, and compensation and is currently updating The Sexual Offences Handbook.