The occasions on which the discretion under s 135 of the Evidence Act 1995 to reject evidence tendered by an accused in criminal proceedings will be few. A solicitor's file note recording client instructions is likely admissible as a business record under s 69(2)(b). For the purposes of the transitional provisions of the Crimes Amendment Self-Defence Act 2001, proceedings for an offence are instituted no later than arraignment on the original indictment, and re-arraignment on a materially identical indictment does not constitute the institution of fresh proceedings. The presentation of an indictment in the same terms as a prior indictment but signed by a different Crown Prosecutor or bearing a different date amounts to a substitution within s 20 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1986.
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