Victorian Courts Review

Initiated jointly by Victoria’s Attorney-General and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria and Chair of the Courts Council, the Review considers sexual harassment in the context of Victoria’s courts, including incidents involving the judiciary, non-judicial VCAT members, Court Services Victoria staff and others operating within this environment (such as those appearing before the courts and VCAT).

Dr Helen Szoke AO is leading the Review. A former Commissioner of the Victoria Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, Race Discrimination Commissioner for the Australian Human Rights Commission and Chief Executive Officer for Oxfam Australia, Dr Szoke is a current member of the Judicial Commission of Victoria. We will be supporting Dr Szoke and her secretariat through a research partnership.

The Review’s terms of reference focus on four key elements:

• preventing sexual harassment
• improving reporting and support
• raising awareness
• ensuring accountability.

The final report will be provided to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Victorian Attorney-General, and a report published by February-March 2021.

Read more on the Victorian Courts Review website

The Review considers sexual harassment in the operating environment of Victoria’s courts and VCAT. This includes sexual harassment involving:

• judges, VCAT members and magistrates
• Court Services Victoria employees (including volunteers and contractors)
• people working in court or VCAT buildings, even if it is not their principal place of work (such as a lawyers and advocates, interpreters and mediators).

It includes conduct occurring in court and VCAT buildings, as well as at work-related events and via electronic means, such as email or text message.

The Review also considers sexual harassment involving members of the public (such as witnesses, observers or parties), but only where this occurs in a court or VCAT building.

The scope of the Review does not include examining sexual harassment that is not connected with the courts or VCAT. For example, complaints about harassment by a colleague in a law firm in or barristers’ chambers or between a lawyer and client that did not occur in a Victorian court or VCAT.

The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission is supporting the Review as a research partner through our statutory research function.

The Commission is an independent body with responsibilities under Victoria’s human rights laws, and we have strong experience in the sensitive, careful management of issues of sexual harassment.

We are deeply appreciative of the contributions made by people who came forward to participate in an interview, or who submitted an anonymous online webform describing their experiences.

We take the privacy of all participants to the Review seriously. All information received has been de-identified and collated into themes before being provided to the Review team to draft the final report and recommendations.

The law defines sexual harassment as unwelcome sexual behaviour that causes a person to feel offended, humiliated or intimidated, where a reasonable person could have anticipated that reaction in the circumstances.

Sexual harassment can be physical, verbal or written.

Read more about sexual harassment

Privacy is one of our key concerns in our victim-centric approach. The Commission has strong experience in the sensitive, careful management of issues around sexual harassment.

We have established processes in place to ensure only a small group of authorised Commission staff have access to names and contact details. No identifying details have been passed on to the Review team or will be published.

We collect, store and destroy all personal information in accordance with the information privacy principles contained in the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic).

We sought consent from participants before sharing any de-identified quotes or case studies with the Review team. De-identified information will be published in the Review report and may also be referred to in Commission publications.

Participants have the option to withdraw their consent to participate in the Review at any time before the Review report is published.

Read the Commission’s privacy policy

All submissions have and will continue to be treated in confidence, unless permission.

The safety and privacy of individuals sharing their personal experiences of sexual harassment is paramount: personally identifiable information will be removed or redacted, and will not appear in any Review report.

The Review report will be published in March 2021 and will be informed by themes identified through individual submissions and stories.

Experienced Commission staff conducted the interviews using a victim-centred approach to prioritise the individuals’ safety and comfort in sharing their story feels safe in their own words.

Referrals to counselling and support were also available and participants could elect a support person to join their interview.

The Review is endeavouring to form a holistic view of how Victoria’s court system works to prevent and respond to sexual harassment.

Other reviews have demonstrated that even organisations that are working to achieve best practice can benefit from an understanding of individual experiences within their systems and processes.

First-hand information was collected about the nature of the harassment, the impact it can have, barriers to reporting, how a complaint was handled and the cultural factors that may have contributed to the harassment.

We also encouraged individuals to share their insights and suggestions for how to best address the problem and bring about change within the courts system.

The Commission has decades of experience in managing sensitive issues, including sexual harassment. Our well-established systems and processes are designed to protect the interests of individuals making reports. The Commission is also an independent body with statutory responsibilities under human rights legislation, including to receive and manage formal complaints of sexual harassment and discrimination under the Equal Opportunity Act.

Individuals who submitted via our online anonymous form received an email to let them know that their submission had been received. We encourage all people who made an anonymous submission to check our website again in March 2021 to access the final report.

We will send a copy of the final report to all those who participated in a confidential interview. We anticipate the final report will be available in March 2021.

To receive information about the progress of the Review, you can subscribe for updates from the Courts Review website.

While the Review will not address or investigate individual complaints, it has established a process to receive information from individuals who wish to share their experience through the Commission.

Individuals who shared their experience could also choose – but were not required – to lodge a formal complaint. We can provide information to individuals about their options for making a formal complaint and support them through the complaint process.

We can give you information about how to make a complaint to the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission or another organisation. We can also give you information about your rights.