New South Wales Consolidated Acts

CRIMES ACT 1900 - SECT 326

326 Reprisals--judges and other persons connected with judicial proceedings

(1) A person who, without reasonable excuse, threatens to do or cause, or does or causes, any injury or detriment to any person on account of anything lawfully done by a person--

(a) as a witness or juror in any judicial proceeding, or

(b) as a judicial officer, or

(c) as a public justice official in or in connection with any judicial proceeding, or

(d) as an Australian legal practitioner acting--

(i) for a defendant in a criminal matter, or

(ii) in connection with criminal proceedings,

is liable to imprisonment for 10 years.

(2) A person who threatens to do or cause, or who does or causes, any injury or detriment to another person because the person believes the other person will or may be or may have been called as a witness, or will or may serve or may have served as a juror, in any judicial proceeding is liable to imprisonment for 10 years.

(3) For the purposes of this section, it is immaterial whether the accused acted wholly or partly for a reason specified in subsection (1) or (2).

(4) In this section--

"reasonable excuse" includes--

(a) making, or threatening to make, a complaint about a person to a person or body acting in an official capacity, including the following--

(i) a professional body,

(ii) the Judicial Commission of New South Wales,

(iii) the NSW Legal Services Commissioner, and

(b) ending, or threatening to end, a retainer.