Section 31 of the Magistrates Court Act 2004 (WA) codifies the common law duty to give adequate reasons, and compliance is assessed by reading the reasons as a whole in the context of the evidence. Where the intellectual process leading to the decision is obvious from the reasons read as a whole, express findings on each disputed fact are not required. Section 30 is satisfied where the magistrate explains to a self-represented party the need to put their case to witnesses in cross-examination and that failure to do so may affect credibility assessments.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 29 later cases that cite this judgment.
8 of the 29 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.