Foley's List Barrister
Barrister Information
Profile
Overview
Dr Jason Harkess has 25 years of experience in criminal and civil advocacy and is an expert in the law of evidence. He accepts briefs involving institutional liability, breaches of Australia’s corporate and trade practice laws, administrative law, white-collar criminal and quasi-criminal matters and all other kinds of crime for prosecution or defence. His practice spans written advice, trials, and appeals.
Experience
Advocacy
Extensive experience in handling matters from the initial stage of advice and case conception through to trial by jury or judge-alone, and then on appeal, including:- criminal trials involving allegations of serious sexual offending, illegal drug cultivation/manufacturing/trafficking, arson, serious crimes of violence, culpable driving, theft, fraud, bribery, perjury and other kinds of white-collar offending;
- civil trials involving common law, judicial review and statutory compliance claims covering a wide field of state and federal regulatory regimes;
- more than 1,000 witnesses conferenced, briefed, examined or cross-examined (including complainants, defendants, civilians, company directors, police, public officials, and independent experts);
- highly experienced in briefing vulnerable witnesses and helping them navigate the trial process to minimise re-traumatisation when giving evidence;
- regularly briefed to advise on the strength and admissibility of certain evidence to prove complex claims.
Administrative Law (Decision-Making)
Significant experience in administrative decision-making:- part-time member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal of Australia from 2018 to 2022, exercising statutory power under the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975 (Cth) and the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), determining over 900 appeals brought against the commonwealth government by foreign citizens (including asylum seekers) whose visas had been refused or cancelled;
- part-time detention review officer appointed by the Victorian state government to conduct reviews under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 (Vic) in relation to travellers or returning residents who had been ordered to remain in quarantine at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021;
- current treasurer of the Australian Institute of Administrative Law (Victorian Chapter).
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards legislation. The information referred to above has been supplied by the barrister concerned. Neither Victorian Bar Inc nor the barrister's clerk have independently verified the accuracy or completeness of the information and neither accepts any responsibility in that regard.
Admitted
06 Mar 2002
Bar
22 May 2003
Areas of Expertise
- Appellate
- Appellate Merits Review
- Civil Appeals
- Criminal Appeals
- ASIC investigations and Prosecutions
- Civil and Human Rights
- Compliance and Investigations
- Corruption
- Customs
- Disciplinary Proceedings
- Health and Medical
- Immigration Law
- Judicial Review and Administrative Law
- Merits Review
- Migration Law
- Privacy or Freedom of Information
- Proceeds of Crime
- Public Administrative Appellate
- Commercial Appellate
- Competition and Consumer Law
- Intellectual Property
- Commissions or Tribunals and Other Inquiries
- Coronial Inquests
- Crimes Against the Person
- Criminal Appellate
- Drugs
- Extradition
- Fraud
- Mental Illness
- Proceeds of Crime or Money Laundering
- Property Offences and Theft or Robbery or Burglary
- Sexual Assault
- Traffic
- White Collar and Corporate Crime
- Work Health and Safety - Criminal