Project No. 60

Commenced: 1975
Completed: 1975

It had long been the practice of magistrates and judges, if they found a charge proved but considered that there were extenuating circumstances, to convict an offender and merely 'caution' him. The purported legal effect of a caution was that, whether or not the offender was ordered to pay the complainant’s costs or some other order was made against him, he was unconditionally discharged.

As a result of the 1975 Supreme Court decision Walsh v Giumelli; White v Gifford ([1975] WAR 114), which held that a Court of Petty Sessions had no power to impose a caution on a convicted offender, the Attorney General referred the matter to the Commission for consideration of possible alternatives to the use of cautions.