National Legal Assistance and Access to Justice Campaign

Legal Aid Matters

Legal assistance helps every day people face extraordinary problems in relation to debt, family law matters, welfare benefits, landlord and tenant problems, and discrimination at work or community care needs. Essentially, it is a way to provide a lawyer for people who could not otherwise afford one.

The current level of funding for legal assistance in Australia leaves many Australians without the ability to access justice.

In many countries the level of government funding contributed to legal assistance is such that no one is locked out from accessing the legal system simply because they cannot afford a lawyer. In Australia, only a tiny fraction of public spending is dedicated towards legal assistance, and generally only the very poorest people are able to receive legal aid, and even then, only if they meet strict criteria.

Without the ability to obtain legal aid many Australians are forced to represent themselves in court. This not only imposes a terrible burden on the individual, but slows down all court processes and wastes a considerable amount of court time.

The legal profession is committed to ensuring that all Australians have access to justice and a national lobbying campaign has been commenced in the hope that the Federal Government will address this issue as a matter of urgency. The Queensland Law Society is proud to be associated with the Legal Aid Matters campaign, where the objective is simple:

To persuade the government to guarantee an adequately funded legal aid system ensuring a cooperative, nationally consistent and fair approach to provision of legal aid and access to justice for all.

What does this campaign seek to achieve?

The national Legal Aid Matters campaign aims to improve access to justice for all Australians.

The legal profession wants the Government to make legal assistance sector funding a priority issue and to ensure a cooperative, nationally consistent and fair approach to the provision of legal aid.

The Commonwealth Government should:

• Develop a National Partnership Agreement with the States/Territories which is based on national goals, as distinct from Commonwealth or State goals.
• Short Term: Restore per capita funding to Legal Aid Commissions to 1997 levels. This would require a $43.2 million increase in the 2010-11 Commonwealth Budget.
• Longer Term: Restore Commonwealth share of Legal Aid Commission funding to 50% (up from 32%). This would require an additional recurrent expenditure of $220 million.
• Make the Commonwealth increase conditional on States/Territories maintaining their funding levels.
• Increase funding to community legal centres and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services, in the latter case to ensure parity in services and conditions with legal aid commissions.

State Governments should:

• Agree to the involvement of the legal profession in the negotiation of the new National Partnership Agreements.
• Provide a guaranteed ‘floor' under State funding levels, which is maintained regardless of fluctuations in public purpose funds.
• Maintain current funding levels regardless of any increase in Commonwealth funds.

Support the Campaign

There are a number of ways you can support the Legal Aid Matters campaign.

Lobby your MP

For legal practitioners

The Society encourages any interested practitioners that have not already done so to write to their local electorate office expressing their views regarding the current level of legal assistance funding.

To assist practitioners with this task, below is a copy of a pro forma letter outlining common concerns regarding legal assistance funding and including space for practitioners to outline their personal experience in obtaining legal assistance for clients.

Letter of support - for lawyers

Send us your case studies

To help support the campaign, we'd like practitioners to send us examples of how inadequate legal aid funding is affecting their clients. Send us your cases studies by email.

For members of the public

The Society also like to encourages members of the public that have been denied legal assistance in the past to write to their local electorate office expressing their views regarding the current level of legal assistance funding.

To assist with this task, below is a copy of a pro forma letter outlining common concerns regarding legal assistance funding and including space to outline your personal story regarding the consequences experienced as a result of being denied legal assistance.

Letter of support - for individuals

Find out who your MP is by entering your postcode in the search facility on the ABC's "Find Your Local MP" website.

For further information as to the benefits of an adequately funding legal assistance sector, please see the below PricewaterhouseCoopers reports, commissioned by National Legal Aid, the Law Council of Australia, the Law Institute of Victoria, the Victorian Bar and the Australian Bar Association.

‘Legal Aid Funding: Current Challenges and the Opportunities of Cooperative Federalism'

‘Economic Value of Legal Aid’

Media Contact

For all media enquiries, please contact Celia Casey, Director of Corporate Communications and Marketing, on 07 3842 5903 or email c.casey@qls.com.au.