Carmen Randazzo SC was admitted to practice in 1986 and signed the Bar Roll for the first time in 1991.

In 1995 she commenced as the then only in House Counsel for the Criminal Law Division of Victoria Legal Aid. In 2001, after successfully lobbying the Bar Council to allow Public Defenders who met the Victorian Bar requirements for eligibility as members of the Bar to re-sign the Bar Roll, she re-signed the Bar Roll, but remained as Senior Public Defender till August 2006.

She Took silk and was appointed Senior Counsel in 2003, and a Magistrate in 2006. Carmen Randazzo returned to the Bar in 2009 and is an experienced trial and appeal advocate. Carmen is a member of the Criminal Bar Association and Women Barristers’ Association.

Carmen has appeared as Defence Counsel and Senior Defence Counsel in numerous Supreme Court and County Court Criminal Trials. She specializes in homicide, sex cases, driving cases involving deaths and serious injuries, and has a keen interest in forensic mental health cases under The Crimes (Mental Impairment & Unfitness to be Tried) Act 1997. She has presented and published numerous papers in this area. She is currently completing her PhD at Deakin University on the defence of Mental Impairment in summary jurisdictions.

Carmen’s practice extends to appearances in the Court of Appeal on both convicition and sentence appeals.

Carmen has also appeared in numerous Royal Commission hearings into the Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse on behalf of varied and interested parties.

Carmen has extensive experinece and is available to be briefed as Senior Counsel in the following jursidictions:

• Court of Appeal
• Supreme Court
• County Court
• Magistrates’ Court
• VCAT
• Royal Commissions
• Coroners’ Court
• Childrens’ Court

Cases of interest Carmen has appeared in have included;

• Pillay v The DPP (Court of Criminal Appeal), 2014. This case involved issues of inconsistent verdicts as between 2 separate juries resulting in the successful quashing of convictions imposed by the first jury.

• DPP v Christiansz (Supreme Court), 2014. This case involved a police shooting where the accused was shot at 3 times by police. The accused was charged with the attempted murder of one police officer. Carmen successfully argued for a directed acquittal.

• DPP v Murphy (County Court), 2015. This case involved a charge of culpable drive on a country dirt road in regional Victoria. Carmen successfully argued for a dirested acquittal.

Carmen will ONLY accept work/briefs from or via Solicitors.