Assett forfeiture followup 1

As I promised in an earlier post, I have in fact followed up on the asset forfeiture travesty.

I contacted my local representative regarding my concerns that the law was being applied capriciously and inappropriately. I even received a response!

The response requested details of cases where I believe that the law is being abused, and this is where things start to derail.

Transcripts of criminal court cases in WA are not readily available to the public. I have made several inquiries as to how I can gain access to the records of the courts' proceedings, and it appears that release of the transcripts (even redacted) is up to the discretion of the bureaucrats in the Department of the Attorney General, in response to submission of a "Form 1", which can be found at http://www.justice.wa.gov.au/_files/Crim_Procedure_Rules_Form_1.pdf

I imagine that a "Freedom of Information" application could also be made, but I have been advised that it would likely fail under the "release is not in the interests of the public" clause.

How I can "provide details of cases" is obviously going to prove problematic.

Since the initial post, the government has changed at the recent election, and my local representative is now in the government, so I will follow up this as opportunity arises.