Legal Aid NT to axe services amid staffing crisis

People accused of serious crimes in the NT could be unable to access critical legal services from next year, sparking grave concerns innocent people will end up behind bars.

People accused of serious crimes in the Northern Territory will be unable to access critical legal services from next year.

People accused of serious crimes in the Northern Territory will be unable to access critical legal services from next year, amid a severe funding crisis which has sparked grave concerns that innocent people will end up behind bars.

The Australian understands lawyers at the Territory’s largest government legal agency, NT Legal Aid, are preparing to wind back criminal services from the end of the month, with all adult contested mentions and hearings to be halted by January.

The move, which comes just weeks after the Country Liberal Party took power in the Territory, will throw the region’s already fragile justice system into turmoil, with sources describing the cuts to services as “the worst we’ve seen”.

Legal Aid NT is expected to make a formal announcement later this week.

“The consequences will be people won’t be legally represented and will go to jails which are already overflowing,” eminent NT silk John Lawrence SC told The Australian. “The court system will be clogged up by having to deal with unrepresented people.”

The announcement will come following a tumultuous year for the Territory, which has seen large crime waves particularly among Indigenous communities in Alice Springs.

The country’s largest Aboriginal justice service, the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, has also experienced dire staff shortages, and had to halt services across regional courts for more than three months.

During that period, Legal Aid NT redirected services to youth courts, existing clients, fresh custodies and clients facing serious indictable charges in order to help supplement the gaps left by NAAJA.

However The Australian understands that under the new cuts Legal Aid NT will be unable to help NAAJA at all.

Having one less organisation able to represent defendants will be catastrophic for the region because, as one legal source explained, if NAAJA has a new matter in which a victim or witness is a client, they cannot cross examine them if the matter is contested as they would be privy to privileged information.

“Imagine any other state or territory hearing an Australian who has a common law right to access to justice will have to represent themselves and go without a lawyer, it would be a national outrage,” the source said.

“It’s pretty crazy; what will happen to all those on remand? Today, if you are in custody and are asking for a hearing date, it is not until 8-9 months from now where they will have already stopped doing contested hearings.”

“It would seem there will be no contingency plan for those refused aid due to service cuts unless they can pay themselves, which those who apply and are given a grant of Legal Aid in normal circumstances are granted aid due to being financially unable to fund a private lawyer themselves or through family or friends.”

It is understood services provided to those under the age of 18 will not be affected, nor will duty lawyer services.

Currently if NT Legal Aid does not have capacity, or is conflicted, a private lawyer is briefed in a matter. Following the withdrawal of funding this also will not occur.

In a rare intervention earlier this year, NT Chief Justice Michael Grant said the “difficulties” faced within the NAAJA had placed “additional burdens on the NT Legal Aid Commission, which is obviously not staffed or funded to assume the NAAJA caseload”.

He said there was a “crucial place for structured legal aid services in the administration of justice”. “Without properly funded and functioning legal aid services, the administration of criminal justice would quickly come to a grinding halt,” he said at the time.

NT deputy opposition leader Dheran Young called on the government to “come to the table and provide extra demand-based funding”.

“The services Legal Aid provide to Territorians are vital which is why the former Territory Labor government was always a strong supporter of the legal assistance sector,” Mr Young said.

“It is extremely concerning Legal Aid may cut services, which will have disastrous flow on affects including Territorians going unrepresented in court.”

Legal Aid NT is funded by both the Territory’s government and the federal government’s National Legal Assistance Partnership, which is due to expire in June next year.

According to the organisation’s annual reports NT Labor’s funding year on year ranged from $7.1m per year up to $10.8m. The commonwealth averaged around $7m of funding per year.

An NT government spokesperson said Legal Aid NT “continues to receive funding from the commonwealth and Northern Territory governments”.

“The NT government continues to advocate for needs-based funding for legal services demands,” the spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the “issues raised are related to the NT government’s funding to the NT Legal Aid Commission”.