District Court of New South Wales - Structure and Jurisdiction - Criminal Jurisdiction

Criminal Jurisdiction

See also: Drug Court of New South Wales and Children's Court of New South Wales

The District Court deals with a wide range of criminal matters. The only charges that the District Court cannot deal with are murder or treason, which must be dealt with by the Supreme Court. The types of criminal matters dealt with by the District Court include:

• offences against the person: including offences like manslaughter, malicious wounding to inflict grievous bodily harm and dangerous driving;
• assaults: including offences like common assault, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and assault of police officers;
• sexual assaults: including offences like sexual assault, indecent assault and carnal knowledge;
• offences relating to property: including offences like robbery from the person, break, enter and steal, larceny (stealing) and embezzlement;
• offences involving illicit drug use: including offences like the importation of heroin and other drugs into Australia, prohibited supply of drugs and possess prohibited drug; and
• offences involving fraud: including offences like passing valueless cheques, obtaining money by deception and forgery.