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Ms Miiko Kumar

Profile

Degrees/Education

  • BA/LLB Syd (Currently completing post graduate degree.)

Professional Affiliations

  • Barrister, New South Wales Bar Association
  • Legal Practitioner, Supreme Court of New South Wales
  • Roll of Legal Practitioners, High Court of Australia

Courses Taught

  • Processes of Justice (Unit Coordinator)
  • Litigation (Unit Coordinator)
  • Law, Lawyers and Justice
  • Foundations of Law

Areas of Interest

  • Evidence
  • Civil and Criminal Procedure
  • Comparative Evidence Law

Brief Biographical Detail

Miiko Kumar is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney, currently teaching in the areas of Evidence and Procedure in the undergraduate programme. She joined the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney as a part-time lecturer in 1996 and as an Adjunct lecturer in 2004. She took up a full-time position in the Faculty in 2006.

She is a graduate of the University of Sydney in Arts and Law. She was admitted to practice in 1996 and was admitted to the Bar in 2001. As a solicitor, she worked at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW) and Crown Solicitor's Office (Torts section). She was a law reform officer at the Australian Law Reform Commission and worked on the adversarial system of litigation inquiry; Managing Justice, A Review of the Federal Civil Justice System, Report No 89 (2000). As a barrister, some of the significant cases that she appeared in are Bashford v Information Australia(2004) 218 CLR 366, Palmer Bruyn & Parker Pty Ltd v Parsons (2001) 208 CLR 388, Village Building Co Ltd v Canberra International Airport Pty (2004) 210 ALR 114, Cremona v RTA (2001) 35 MVR 19 and Geaghan v D'Aubert (2002) 36 MVR 542.

Miiko is the co-author of Companion to Uniform Evidence Law with Stephen Odgers SC and Dr Elisabeth Peden, which was published in 2004 (second edition published in July 2007). She was an Advisory Committee Member and Consultant on the Australian Law Reform Commission’s review of the Evidence Act; Uniform Evidence Law, Report No 102, (2005). She is currently writing the evidence title in Halsbury's Laws of Australia. Miiko is also the examiner for the NSW Bar evidence exam and is a member of the Exam Working Part Committee of the NSW Bar Association.

Publications

Books | Book Chapters | Journal Articles | Conference & Invited Papers

Books

  • S Odgers , E Peden, M Kumar – Companion to Uniform Evidence Law, Thomson, 2004 (2nd ed 2007)

Book Chapters

  • M Kumar, Evidence Title in Halsbury’s Laws of Australia (LexisNexis) Forthcoming

Journal Articles

  • Kumar M & E Magner, ‘Good reasons for gagging the accused’, University of New South Wales Law Journal (1997) 20(2) pp311
  • Kumar M, ‘Educating the bench, interview with Justice Sally Brown’ Polemic, (1995) 6(2) pp93;
  • Kumar M, ‘Diversion of child sex offenders’, Polemic, (1995) 6(1) pp17

Conference & Invited Papers

  • Kumar, M, ‘Criminal Law Update - Discretions’, presented at the College of Law Conference, Sydney, 30 November 2007
  • Kumar, M, ‘Complaint Evidence - Intersection of Credit and Hearsay Rules’, presented at the Sydney Law School Postgraduate Conference, University of Sydney, 24 November 2007
  • Kumar, M, ‘Evidence Workshop’, presented at the Legalwise conference, 20 September 2007
  • Kumar, M, ‘Hearsay', presented at the Legal Aid Commission Criminal Law Conference, 2 August 2007
  • Kumar, M, 'Evidence lecture for Bar examinations', presented at the NSW Bar Association, Sydney, 29 June 2007
  • Kumar, M, ‘Discretions to Exclude Evidence’, presented at the College of Law conference, Sydney, 26 February 2007
  • Kumar, M, 'Evidence lecture for Bar examinations', presented at the NSW Bar Association, Sydney, 2 February 2007
  • Kumar M, ‘Evidence Series’,Chair for College of Law, 16 May 2006
  • Kumar M, ‘Review of the Evidence Act’, paper presented at the Commercial Law Association of Australia, 17 March 2005
  • Kumar M, ‘Using the Evidence Act – tips for commercial litigation’ – presented to solicitors at Corrs Chambers Westgarth, November 2004
  • Kumar M, ‘Expert Evidence and Hearsay’, paper presented for Civil Litigation Masterclass Conference, Darling Harbour, 1 November 2004
  • Kumar M, ‘Trade Practices Act and Negligence’, paper presented at APLA Conference with Christopher Hodgekiss SC, July 2004
  • Kumar M, ‘Evidence Update’, Paper presented on recent decisions on the Evidence Act, The College of Law, May 2004
  • Kumar M, ALRC, Issues Paper 28, Issues Paper 28, Review of the Evidence Act 1995, 2004 (consultant on inquiry)
  • Kumar M, ‘Evidence Update’ presented at The College of Law, 2003
  • Kumar M, ‘Evidence Revisited’, The College of Law, 24 September 2002
  • Kumar M, ‘Evidence Revisited’, The College of Law, March 2002
  • Kumar M, ‘Privilege – An update’, paper presented for the Principles and Practice of Commercial Litigation, Faculty of Law, University of NSW, November 2001
  • Kumar M, ‘Evidence Revisited – Hearsay’, The College of Law, July 2001
  • Kumar M, ‘Evidence Gathering and the Unrepresented Litigant’, paper presented at the Annual Administrative Decisions Tribunal Professional Development Day, 26 October 2001
  • Kumar M, ‘Evidence for arbitrators’, The Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators Australia at the University of Adelaide National Advanced Arbitration Course 2000, 2001, 2002
  • Kumar M, ‘Recent Developments in Evidence’, Paper presented at Crown Solicitor’s Office, December 2000
  • Kumar M, ‘Recent Decisions on the Evidence Act’, The College of Law, May 2000
  • Kumar M, ‘Enforcement of Civil Judgments in NSWUNDP Training of Procurators from Vietnam’ for The Centre for Asian and Pacific Law in the University of Sydney, Paper has been presented on April 2000, March 2000, September 1999 and June 1999.
  • Kumar M, ALRC, Issues Paper 23, Review of the adversarial system of litigation: Technology and litigation 1998 (co-wrote)
  • Kumar M, ALRC, Issues Paper 22, Review of the adversarial system of litigation: Rethinking family law proceedings 1997 (co-wrote)
  • Kumar M, ALRC, Issues Paper 20, Review of the adversarial system of litigation Rethinking federal civil litigation 1997 (co-wrote)
  • Kumar M, ‘The Admissibility of Past Sexual History Evidence in NSW’, Australian Law Teachers’Conference 1997 for the Evidence and Procedure Interest Group University of Technology, Sydney, October 1997
  • Kumar M, ‘Reforming Primary Dispute Resolution in the Family Court of Australia’, Masters of Dispute Resolution and the Law for course titled 'Court Based Dispute Resolution' University of Technology, Sydney, September 1997
  • Kumar, M, ‘Case Management, Evidence and Procedure in the Family Court of Australia, The College of Law, Paper was presented on three separate occasions.
  • Kumar M, ‘Character, Credit and Hearsay Evidence’, Country Solicitors’ Conference 1997, organised by the Legal Aid Commission (Orange)
  • Kumar M, ‘Hearsay Evidence’, The Legal Aid Commission’s Duty Solicitors Annual Conference 1997, July 1997
  • Kumar M, ‘Expert Evidence in Sexual Assault Cases’, Paper presented to Masters of Psychology students, The University of Sydney, October 1996