Scenes of criminal barristers and solicitors protesting outside a Victorian court last week over dwindling legal aid fees, brought home an important message for Australia's legal system: We simply cannot ignore the resources needed to ensure that even the most disadvantaged have access to justice and fair representation.
As reported on page 8, the state's legal funding system has reached a crisis point. Members of the Victorian Bar and the Law Institute of Victoria are leading the charge after Victoria Legal Aid (VLA) reported a deficit of $20.3 million in its 2007-08 annual report.
The numbers involved in the protest suggest a situation so dire that lawyers are willing to stop work and cause unprecedented disruptions in the court system with an overload of unrepresented clients.
The issue comes down to an old conundrum - high workloads and poor wages. For criminal lawyers, it's a conundrum further exacerbated by the high salaries of their cousins in private practice.
Meanwhile law firms undertaking legal aid work are also dropping off, given that, according to a survey by the Federal Attorney-General, the rate of pay is barely half the going commercial rates.
It's concerning to hear, as indicated in a PricewaterhouseCoopers study, that VLA-funded barristers' real, take home pay has fallen by 25 per cent to 40 per cent over the past 15 years.
Also putting some perspective to the issue is statistics from the Law Council of Australia which claim that Australia spends just $22 per person in actual expenditure on legal aid, while in the UK, that figure is more than $90.
Neglecting justice is paramount to allowing our basic infrastructure needs to fall by the wayside. Realistically, such a shortcoming should be taken just as seriously as a significant break in our transport, energy and water networks. Its ramifications have long-lasting implications and dire consequences for those who most need legal protection.
To provoke a funding shortfall is to cause a crack in the system that will affect all Australians at some point, but not before it hits the disadvantaged first.
Unfair pay for lawyers and a lack of funding affects the quality, representation and services available to assist those in need.
It's a blight on our infrastructure that denotes a significant step backwards for the progression of Australia.
- Angela Priestley
