It should go without saying that court proceedings are serious proceedings and should be treated as such. Every day, individuals rely upon documents in court for a number of reasons. They may rely on documents, such as lawyer letters, to request an adjournment of a hearing. Or it may be that you are producing documents for consideration by a Magistrate or Judge in a Plea Hearing. Regardless of the nature of the document being produced, there are some stringent and unambiguous requirements that must be followed. This is particularly important given that there are criminal offences that can be committed in the course of preparing documents for court and then relying upon them.
The Prevalence of Document Falsification
In recent times, there has been media surrounding medical letters being produced in court, which are alleged to have been falsified, in circumstances where they were to be relied upon by a Magistrate when considering an application for an adjournment. Individuals have been charged and are currently before the court. This article certainly doesn’t seek to comment on those particular proceedings, nor to make an assessment of the strength of the evidence nor the likely outcome. However, in the age of Adobe Pro, Canva and a number of other programs, the ability for everyday people to create, amend and falsify documents has never been more advanced. It has also made the jobs of Courts, lawyers and investigators more challenging, but also more focused, to ensure that documents relied upon in court are bona fide. It is far more common for courts, Prosecutors and Investigators to check the origin and validity of documents.
Verifying Character References in Criminal Proceedings
For example, where Character References are relied upon in serious criminal proceedings, particularly where a person is pleading guilty to dishonesty offences, it is not uncommon for the Prosecution to call the referees in each of those references to confirm that:
- They did write the reference;
- The reference is in the exact terms to that which they prepared; and
- They understand that the Reference is being used in a Plea Hearing for the offences charged.
If the referees answer “no” to any of the aforementioned, the Prosecution will raise this with the Court with which the references were filed and may recommend charges, including making a false document and an attempt to pervert the course of justice. The prospects of criminal charges flowing from false documents become more likely the more important the document is. In recent times, lawyers have been charged with offences flowing from the alleged falsification of documents relied upon in their client’s cases!
False Evidence in Drug-Related Cases
For example, if a person is charged with criminal offences which were allegedly committed whilst they were under the influence of drugs and struggling with a drug abuse disorder, evidence of rehabilitation and abstinence from drugs may be important to the defence. The defence may seek to argue that the accused’s persons personal circumstances have changed, they are engaged in rehabilitation and that they should be sentenced to a disposition that prioritises their ongoing recovery. Often, defence lawyers will ask their clients (whilst on bail and pending sentence for the offences) to have regular and supervised urine screens so that there is objective evidence that they have abstained from drugs. If a particularly foolish client does not follow the advice of their lawyer, does not engage in urine screens or, if they do, returns positive screens, they may be tempted to doctor the urine screens or create entirely fake ones in order to benefit their criminal proceedings (whether or not this is true).
Consequences of Submitting Falsified Documents
The possible outcomes of falsifying documents and then relying upon them are very serious. Obviously, there may be cases where no one (including the accused’s lawyer) notices the discrepancies, nor makes further enquiries. If this occurs, the sentencing court may proceed to sentence the accused after considering and relying on urine screens produced by the accused. However, this is becoming less and less likely given how alert lawyers, courts and prosecutors are to the increasing prevalence of documents being created by desperate, scared accused persons who, instead of engaging with rehabilitation from the moment they were granted bail, now seek to mislead the court for their own benefit.
If a lawyer becomes aware that they have filed false documents with the court, they are placed in an impossible position because their primary obligation and duty is to the court. On the converse, they have an obligation to promote their client’s best interests. In that situation, a lawyer must immediately cease to act for the client, without explaining to the court why this has occurred. Thereafter, the client may have to self-represent in front of a frustrated and confused Judge or Magistrate.
However, if none of the parties identify the fraud until after the accused is sentenced, the accused may face further charges of make false document, pervert the course of justice and attempt to pervert the course of justice. The most recent sentencing statistics demonstrate that 69.8% of individuals sentenced for the offence of attempt to pervert the course of justice were sentenced to imprisonment. The shortest sentence was one month and the longest sentence was 7.33 years. The median sentence was 1 year. Ironically, there have been cases where individuals have produced fraudulent documents to a court, in circumstances where a sentence of imprisonment for the original offence was unlikely, and thereafter are sentenced to a term of imprisonment for falsifying the documents relied upon.
More than the prison sentence itself, serious dishonesty offences can haunt you for the rest of your working life. You might think that it would be very unlikely that a bank or financial institution would ever offer you finance, credit or any sort of loan in circumstances where you have a criminal history for serious dishonesty, falsification of documents and lying to a court.
Ensuring Document Accuracy
If you are proposing to rely on documents in court, regardless of the level of severity of the proceedings, you must ensure that those documents are checked for accuracy and validity. Under no circumstances, should you falsify documents nor obtain them under false circumstances. Rather, engage with the process, work with your lawyer and put the effort in to really promote your prospects in your proceedings. Remember, we are here to help you! If you need advice or assistance, call our criminal lawyers in Melbourne on (03) 9670 8771.
