Firm news

Parliament Should Put Brakes on Cop Chase Law

Parliament is being urged to reject a new law with tough mandatory penalties for drivers failing to stop for police, with criminal defence lawyer Cameron Browne saying the penalties are worse than for some drink-driving offences. The proposed new law would carry a mandatory $5000 fine and two year licence suspension for anyone convicted of failing to stop a vehicle when ordered to do so by police. Mr Browne, a Director of Potts Lawyers, Queensland’s biggest private criminal defence law firm, said the Criminal Law Amendment Bill 2012 currently before the Queensland Parliament, had major flaws in it and was not needed...

Sentencing Should Stay With Courts

PREMIER Campbell Newman should confirm the Government’s axing of its Sentencing Advisory Council means that mandatory sentencing – proposed by the former government – has finally been abandoned.

There is disquiet about mandatory sentencing. The previous government set up the sentencing council to find a way to introduce it. The council instead came out against a policy which took the decision-making process from the courts.

Police Step Up Search for Mother of 3 Allison Baden-Clay, Missing in Brookfield

MAJOR CONCERN: Police have set up a command centre at Brookfield Showgrounds as SES volunteers mount a search for Allison Baden-Clay (pictured with husband Gerard). Source: The Sunday Mail (Qld)

The Latest UK Phone Scams Hitting Mobile Phones

Cameron Browne speaks to Channel 9 News on the latest UK phone scams hitting mobile phones. Watch the full video here;

Gold Coast Community At War With Itself

Not all fun in the sun as financial cracks emerge

6 December, 2011 | Gold Coast Bulletin

The Gold Coast City Council social report shows a community that is “at war with itself”, says lawyer Bill Potts.

Smashed From Inside as Raids Net Suspects

Jessica Elder | 29 November, 2011 | Gold Coast Bulletin Two Finks motorcycle gang members and 12 Finks associates were arrested yesterday after dawn drug raids on 15 Gold Coast properties. Police say the raids, which smashed a massive drug-trafficking ring, came after undercover police spend nine months infiltrating the outlaw bikie gang. More than 100 police executed the raids on homes from Nerang to Mermaid Beach, seizing GHB, methamphetamine and 66 litres of chemicals used to produce methamphetamines. Undercover police infiltrated Finks Outlaw Motorcycle Club for nine months before yesterday smashing what police believe is a drug-trafficking ring in the city’s biggest ever...

Police on jail duty: Prison overflow

by: Kristin Shorten and Jeremy Pierce | From: The Courier-Mail | November 17, 2011 NOT SUITABLE: Watchhouses, designed for short-term remands, are being used to house prisoners as the state's jails run out of room, a situation condemned as bordering on cruelty. Source: The Courier-Mail POLICE are being pulled off the beat to supervise prisoners in watchhouses as the state's jails run out of room. Police Deputy Commissioner Ian Stewart recently met Queensland Corrective Services to voice concerns police resources were being diverted to prisoner care. He said Cairns, Townsville, Brisbane and Southport were under the most strain. “We probably haven't had this (overcrowding) problem to this degree in...

Courts Hardening on Schoolies Booze

PARENTS who supply alcohol to their children for the annual Schoolies festival face being fined and risking their child’s future, according to a prominent Gold Coast legal firm.

Criminal defence lawyer Bill Potts said courts were becoming increasingly unsympathetic to teenagers and parents who did the wrong thing.

Police Frisk Powers Will Scar Teens

You’re a teenager enjoying a Saturday night on the town – maybe planning to see a movie with friends.

Suddenly police stop you and demand answers to questions. Next you are being frisked in public by a gun-toting policeman. Welcome to Queensland if planned new police powers become law.

Steve Austin – 612 ABC Radio

Guns on the Gold Coast

Bill Potts

Gun licences on the Gold Coast have risen by 36 per cent over the past two years, nearly double the figure for the rest of the state.

There’s also been a growing increase in the number of gun related incidents.

Some say fear of growing home invasions is driving the rise in ownership while others point to an increase in criminal gangs. So what is it? Bill Potts is a criminal lawyer based on the Gold Coast.