Under s 59A of the Jury Act 1995 (Qld), the determination of the prescribed period and the assessment of whether a jury is unlikely to reach a unanimous verdict are matters quintessentially for the trial judge and not readily amenable to appellate correction. While neither questioning the jury about unanimity nor giving a Black direction is mandated, one or both should be employed to provide grounds for the required satisfaction. The trial judge's assessment of trial complexity for the purpose of determining whether the prescribed period exceeds eight hours need not be expressly stated if it can be clearly inferred from the manner in which the judge approached the question.
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