What are some of the best ways to manage challenging courtroom interactions and respond to high-conflict behaviours?
Courts continue to experience a range of behaviours from sovereign citizens and querulant litigants. Learn about these groups from the experts and develop practical strategies to respond with calm authority in court.
You will increase your understanding of:
- the sovereign citizen movement and common arguments raised in court
- the case law in relation to sovereign citizens
- the characteristics and assessment of querulant litigants
- how to respond to high-conflict behaviour.
Speakers.
CHIEF JUDGE OF THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA
Justice Peter Kidd
Chief Judge Peter Kidd was appointed as Chief Judge of the County Court of Victoria on 28 September 2015. Chief Judge Kidd brings to the Court more than 20 years of experience as a criminal lawyer in Australia and overseas. His Honour was previously a Senior Crown Prosecutor, an International Prosecutor at the War Crimes Chamber of the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a solicitor for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. His Honour was also a member of the Sentencing Advisory Council Board. Chief Judge Kidd holds a Master of Laws from the University of Geneva, where he specialised in international humanitarian and criminal law, and a Bachelor of Law from the University of Adelaide.
CHIEF JUDGE OF THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA
Justice Peter Kidd
Chief Judge Peter Kidd was appointed as Chief Judge of the County Court of Victoria on 28 September 2015. Chief Judge Kidd brings to the Court more than 20 years of experience as a criminal lawyer in Australia and overseas. His Honour was previously a Senior Crown Prosecutor, an International Prosecutor at the War Crimes Chamber of the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a solicitor for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. His Honour was also a member of the Sentencing Advisory Council Board. Chief Judge Kidd holds a Master of Laws from the University of Geneva, where he specialised in international humanitarian and criminal law, and a Bachelor of Law from the University of Adelaide.
Adjunct Professor of Forensic Psychiatry, Swinburne University of Technology
Professor Michelle Pathé
Until her retirement from clinical work in late 2020 Dr Pathé was the Clinical Lead at the Victorian Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (VFTAC), a joint police-mental health collaboration situated in the Counter Terrorism Command of Victoria Police. She is currently Adjunct Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Swinburne University, Melbourne.
Dr Pathé has a longstanding clinical and research interest in stalking, threats, pathological fixation, querulants, grievance-fuelled violence, and lone actor extremists. She was instrumental in establishing FTACs in the UK, Queensland and Victoria and consulted to the AFP and the Department of Home Affairs in the development and expansion of threat assessment capability in all Australian and New Zealand jurisdictions.
Dr Pathé has delivered training nationally and internationally, to general and forensic mental health, law enforcement, intelligence, security, judicial, correctional, parliamentary and education sectors. She has authored and co-authored three books, 15 book chapters and 100 peer reviewed journal articles. She is a co-author of the validated stalking risk assessment tool, the Stalking Risk Profile, as well as threat assessment tools used in FTAC settings.
Dr Pathé was a co-recipient of the American Psychiatric Association’s Manfred S. Guttmacher Award in 2001 for the book Stalkers and their Victims, and received a Queensland Police Service Award for Excellence in 2014, an Australian Crime and Violence Prevention National Gold Award in 2017, the Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Association of Threat Assessment Professionals in 2018, and a Victoria Police Counter Terrorism Citation in 2020.
Adjunct Professor of Forensic Psychiatry, Swinburne University of Technology
Professor Michelle Pathé
Until her retirement from clinical work in late 2020 Dr Pathé was the Clinical Lead at the Victorian Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (VFTAC), a joint police-mental health collaboration situated in the Counter Terrorism Command of Victoria Police. She is currently Adjunct Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Swinburne University, Melbourne.
Dr Pathé has a longstanding clinical and research interest in stalking, threats, pathological fixation, querulants, grievance-fuelled violence, and lone actor extremists. She was instrumental in establishing FTACs in the UK, Queensland and Victoria and consulted to the AFP and the Department of Home Affairs in the development and expansion of threat assessment capability in all Australian and New Zealand jurisdictions.
Dr Pathé has delivered training nationally and internationally, to general and forensic mental health, law enforcement, intelligence, security, judicial, correctional, parliamentary and education sectors. She has authored and co-authored three books, 15 book chapters and 100 peer reviewed journal articles. She is a co-author of the validated stalking risk assessment tool, the Stalking Risk Profile, as well as threat assessment tools used in FTAC settings.
Dr Pathé was a co-recipient of the American Psychiatric Association’s Manfred S. Guttmacher Award in 2001 for the book Stalkers and their Victims, and received a Queensland Police Service Award for Excellence in 2014, an Australian Crime and Violence Prevention National Gold Award in 2017, the Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Association of Threat Assessment Professionals in 2018, and a Victoria Police Counter Terrorism Citation in 2020.