What kind of justice system asks for evidence, but leaves the person expected to give it behind?

For most victim-survivors of sexual violence, the criminal legal system is disorienting, isolating, and often feels impossible to navigate. Decisions are made around you. Your voice can feel distant from the very process meant to deliver justice. Because legally, the victim-survivor is peripheral to the case against their own perpetrator.

This event, hosted by advocacy and legal education platform With You We Can, invites you to confront the realities of a system that too often fails those it is meant to protect, and to engage with the reforms needed in Victoria to deliver justice that is fair, informed, and responsive.

Leading the conversation is victim-survivor advocate and legal reform campaigner Nicole Meyer, who will share her experience navigating one of Australia’s most high-profile sexual abuse trials - and the more than decade-long journey that followed.

Following Nicole’s story, legal reform advocate Lara Freidin will facilitate a panel discussion with Nicole, alongside Executive Director of With You We Can Sarah Rosenberg and Director of Policy, Advocacy and Communications at Women’s Legal Service Victoria, Roj Amedi.

Together, they will explore what meaningful reform could look like in Victoria, and how lived experience can drive it.

At the heart of this conversation is the Australian Law Reform Commission's Recommendation 10, a legislative ask grounded in a simple but powerful idea: that victim-survivors deserve to be protected and supported within the process that depends on them. It calls for:

Legislative reform to give independent legal representatives standing to appear in court on behalf of complainants of sexual violence
Protection of complainants' personal, sensitive, and confidential information (including counselling records, medical records, diaries, social media, phone records and more) when that information is sought through subpoena or inspection of third-party materials
A notification mechanism so that complainants are told when a subpoena has been issued to a third party for their personal information, and can seek legal advice

This event is for legal professionals, policymakers, advocates, and community members who believe the system can do better.

Join us to listen, learn, and to help shape what justice could become.

Sunday 26th April
Sanders Place, 11-15 Albert St Richmond, Melbourne
5-7pm

Contact the host of Justice on Trial: Evidence, Power and Who Gets Left Behind

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