Turning young lives around
I enjoy working with the youths. You feel like you’re in a stronger position to help them because there’s still so much room for rehabilitation Legal Aid’s youth justice lawyer BRITTANY CLARK
FOR youths facing court in Hobart, Brittany Clark is more than a lawyer.
Ms Clark, Legal Aid’s youth justice lawyer, helps young offenders on the path to rehabilitation. That can include helping them to find somewhere to stay or encourage them to go to school.
She has been in the role for about a year, but it is something she has wanted to do for some time.
“I’d always been hoping to do this role,” she said. “I enjoy working with the youths. You feel like you’re in a stronger position to help them because there’s still so much room for rehabilitation. When they’re a youth it’s often quite circumstantial the reason why they’re offending, so there’s more room to assist them towards the goal of rehabilitation and that’s really enticing for me.”
Ms Clark represents clients in the Youth Justice Court, a division of the Magistrates Court.
It is a closed court for de- fendants younger than 18 years. Ms Clark said its focus was on rehabilitation.
“Whenever a youth is in court the chief magistrate, who is the magistrate in charge of youth court, will always ask them what’s happening with school and those types of things, and will always say to them, well on the next occasion I want to hear that you’ve been going to school.”
The youth court is also a collaborative court. Apart from the specialist youth justice lawyer, a specialist prosecutor, specialist police officer, a youth justice worker, and Education Department representative and other service providers are involved in the cases.
“There are a lot of people speaking about what’s going on with the child,” Ms Clark said.
“It feels like you’re not just focusing on their legal issue, there’s a lot of focus on what else is going on in their life as well and what supports can be put in place to encourage them on the path towards rehabilitation.”
Ms Clark said the court could also be sympathetic to issues facing youth offenders, many of whom are homeless with no consistent family support.
She said she was able to build rapport with many of her youth clients.
“Because they do have quite chaotic lifestyles, just having this one constant person who rocks up at court for them on each occasion and calls them in between and talks about what’s going on, I think they really appreciate that.
“They come to you with all sorts of different problems, not just legal problems, because they see you as an adult who’s willing to help them.”