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SA Law Society backs warnings on state’s court funding
The Law Society of South Australia has supported comments from the chief justice of the state’s Supreme Court about the need for greater court resources.
Jerome Doraisamy
Source: lawsocietysa.asn.au
In a statement, the SA Law Society agreed with comments attributed recently to Chief Justice Chris Kourakis in state-based media, in which he warned of the impact of further budget cuts and argued for more resources in the Youth Court.
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“It is unacceptable that laws designed to improve child safety and wellbeing have caused significant delays in care and protection matters that involve vulnerable and troubled children because no extra funding had been allocated to ensure the Youth Court can adequately deal with its duties under the new legislation,” Law Society president Amy Nikolovski said.
She said she was pleased to read the Chief Justice’s comments that no funding to regional court services should be cut. The concerns raised by the Chief Justice, she continued, are consistent with those made to the society at “meetings recently held with country practitioners”.
“Regional areas are already under-serviced with regards to courts and legal services. It would be deeply regrettable if these communities had to bear the brunt of any future cuts,” she mused.
“It is concerning that we are facing the possibility of more cuts, when the justice system is in dire need of greater investment,” Ms Nikolovski said.
“As the Chief Justice pointed out, any further cuts would exacerbate the chronic delays plaguing our courts system.”
The respective comments from the Chief Justice and the state’s Law Society follow the latter’s state budget submission, in which it was noted that “recent changes to child protection legislation have caused a considerable increase in youth justice matters coming before the court”.
