Will Alstergren: legal aid could be topped up by big business

The new Australian Bar Association president believes underfunded legal aid could be topped up by big business.

Australian Bar Association president Will Alstergren. Picture: James Croucher

The newly installed president of the Australian Bar Association believes he has found a circuit breaker that could address the perennial underfunding of legal aid and community legal centres.

Will Alstergren QC, who took office last week, favours the ­creation of incentives that would encourage companies to contribute to a new fund that would support access to justice.

“Everybody recognises there is a massive gap in funding between what is required and what is actually available,” Mr Alstergren said.

Lawyers, particularly barristers, were attempting to fill that gap by providing increasing amounts of pro bono work. Mr Alstergren, who is a former chairman of the Victorian Bar Council, said governments had recognised the funding shortfall but had limited capacity to make more public money available.

“This is not a priority for them,” he said.

“And to be fair to them, there is probably not a great appetite in the general community for increased funding, despite the fact that it directly affects so many people.”

Mr Alstergren believes governments have a responsibility to financially support access to justice but favours creating an additional funding mechanism that would draw on contributions from companies and the wealthy.

“What we want is for governments, state and federal, to then match those contributions dollar for dollar,” he said.

In order to give the plan impetus, he hopes to have it backed by economic analysis outlining the benefits to the courts and the general community.

“We also want to get the message out to the community that there is a real need for more funding,” he said. “It’s about the community itself where so many people should be entitled to access to justice but are not getting it.”

It is well known that those who appear in court without legal representation take up three times more court time than those who can afford lawyers.

“If we can show there is a practical solution, governments will be more inclined to look at this and make it a priority,” Mr Alstergren said.

Among the options that are being examined is whether industries that can give rise to legal ­issues — such as gambling, alcohol and tobacco — might wish to voluntarily contribute to the fund, or whether they might need to be ­encouraged.