Where does Legal Aid buck stop ...
LEGAL Aid Tasmania has denied it is going broke, despite protests of underfunding and drawn-out delays from a number of Hobart’s criminal defence lawyers.
“It’s more profitable to pack shelves at Woolies than do work for Legal Aid,” lawyer Cameron Scott said.
“Most of us that do Legal Aid work are doing it because we’re committed to justice and ensuring everyone has access to justice, but at the end of the day, we’re still running businesses.
“We can’t continue to do it if Legal Aid continues to under-grant and delay processing grants.”
Mr Scott said he was once paid just $35 for client work that involved his explaining a sentence to a convicted rapist.
Similarly, fellow lawyer Dinesh Loganathan said he’d been granted a meagre $97.59 this week to work on investigation and document discovery for a case.
DELAYS AND UNDERFUNDING
Lawyers say as of August, they’re now waiting up to 10 days to get a response on whether or not their cases will be funded, instead of the previous 24-48-hour turnaround.
Perhaps even more concerning, they say their claims are increasingly being refused, or when they are approved, they’re often only funded to meagre amounts – even less than $100 in some cases.
The trend is worrying for criminal lawyers who work notoriously long hours on cases that can’t be funded by their clients.
But it’s potentially devastating for the often financially-strapped Tasmanians fighting to stay out of jail over accusations of serious crime.
Mr Loganathan said he had recently been denied Legal Aid funding for a hearing because of its limited chances of success, despite the fact his client had been acquitted.
The decision was overturned upon review.
“Recently, they have been granting aid and asking us to claim back $200 from our clients, who usually do not have any money,” he said. “There are a number of practitioners wondering if the commission is going broke, hence the underfunding.”
He said Legal Aid needed to be “frank and honest” with lawyers about what was happening. “We have had to do matters pro bono and it’s not financially viable,” he said.
“The grants officers are being overworked and we feel sorry for them but this is an upper management problem which they refuse to address.”
Mr Loganathan added the funding problems seemed to focus on criminal cases – not child safety or family matters.
WE’RE NOT GOING BROKE, BUT DEMAND IS GOING UP
It’s more profitable at to pack shelves Woolies than do Aid work for Legal barrister Cameron Scott,
The state’s Legal Aid Commission was set up in 1990 with the purpose of funding legal assistance for financially and socially disadvantaged Tasmanians.
Now rebranded as Tasmania Legal Aid, it is funded by both the state and federal governments.
Director Vincenzo Caltabiano said it just wasn’t true the service was in financial dire straits.
“Tasmania Legal Aid recorded a small surplus in 2020-21,” he said.
present, turnaround times are four to five days due to some staff being away.”
He said the service’s financials, as recorded in its latest quarterly report, showed private lawyers were paid more again last year.
However, he said requests for grants had also increased in the same period – almost 32,000 in total.
“This has been increasing steadily over recent years,” he said.
“Tasmania Legal Aid has invested additional resources in keeping processing times down. TLA has also written to practitioners to advise them of increases in time.”
He said any lawyers could apply for a review over a case that had been refused assistance.
ONGOING WOES
Lawyers’ woes regarding Legal Aid go beyond claims of underfunding and delays.
Mr Scott said there were unrealistic expectations to claim large percentages back from financially-vulnerable accused persons.
He said he was recently funded $286 for a case, then asked to recover $200 of the cost back from his client.
Mr Scott also said the re“At view system meant that lawyers were working without funding while they waited for Legal Aid to provide an answer – which often meant they found themselves working pro bono, unintentionally.
“Recently, quite a number of practitioners were experiencing financial stress because of the delays,” he said.
“Processing delays are impacting people. It’s not just an issue of lawyers being funded, it’s about how matters progress through the system, so it’s now delaying the magistrates court significantly.”
Criminal defence barrister Fabiano Cangelosi said he’d experienced similar issues about 10 years ago, when Legal Aid was suffering a funding shortfall.
He said while that was “frustrating”, at least lawyers knew what the problem was.
Mr Cangelosi said the difficulties made it hard to plan, as lawyers weren’t sure which cases would be given funding and which would not, until work had already begun.
“The commission often will fund work now long after the work has been done, and far less than the amount than was originally sought,” he said.