If you find yourself accused of a crime, access to a lawyer is considered a given.
But what about your lawyer’s access to you?
Several legal professionals based in New South Wales have spoken out about barriers they face when their clients are in custody.
Legal help on hold
Elizabeth Stahlut is a solicitor based at Armidale, in the New England region.
At a recent local court appearance, she asked the magistrate to adjourn a case solely because she could not contact her client for instructions.
“I tried to ring one of the correctional centres where my client was being held, and in this instance, it was the Clarence Correctional Centre,” Ms Stahlut said.
“I was actually on hold for over half an hour.”
Ms Stahlut was acting as a duty solicitor and it would have been her first time speaking with the accused person.
She couldn’t get through to her client but stressed the experience was not isolated to Clarence Correctional Centre.
Clarence Correctional Centre is located near Grafton in northern New South Wales. (Supplied: Department of Justice NSW)
Access to justice
Eddie Lloyd is a lawyer based in the Northern Rivers region who has also experienced problems trying to reach clients at Clarence Correctional Centre near Grafton.
“Forty minutes [on hold during a phone call] is very common,” she said.
“We’re competing with hundreds and hundreds of lawyers who have clients in custody.”
Eddie Lloyd says she’s experienced significant difficulties in accessing clients in custody. (Supplied: Eddie Lloyd)
Ms Lloyd said it had become difficult to have comprehensive conferences with clients.
“They can get quite heightened in their mood, sometimes they yell at us,” she said.
“It’s a big issue for our clients’ access to justice, but also for lawyers who are no longer working in a safe environment.
“The stress that we’re under and the pressure that we’re under, having to get instructions from our clients in a very short period of time, is really causing a lot of solicitors to rethink their careers.”
Ms Lloyd said some were leaving the profession.
“We are actually, in my region of the Northern Rivers, losing solicitors and this is one of the reasons because the stress has just taken its toll on people,” she said.
“There’s a whole raft of issues and what it all boils down to is this is a real access to justice issue.”
Brett Collins is a passionate campaigner for the rights of inmates. (ABC News)
Prisoners’ advocate Brett Collins, from the Justice Action group, said he was also aware of concerns being raised at the Clarence Correctional Centre.
“It’s a constant problem actually with contacting clients, and not just for lawyers but family members as well,” he said.
“The worst thing of all is that a person turns up at their court case with the lawyer not properly briefed.
“They’re the sort of things that cause miscarriages [of justice] actually.”
Byron Shire-based lawyer Mark Swivel said it was sometimes a question of jails having the resources “to do the job properly”.
Mark Swivel says it’s vital for people in custody to have adequate access to their lawyers. (Supplied: Kirra Pendergast)
“Being able to talk to your lawyer, it’s really fundamental,” he said.
“It’s a critical social service that lawyers provide to ensure that those people are no more damaged by, or penalised by, our criminal justice system than is absolutely necessary.”
The Clarence Correctional Centre was opened in 2020. (Supplied: Serco)
System under pressure
In a statement, a spokesperson for Clarence Correctional Centre said an increase in remand prisoners across the state had placed added pressure on the legal system.
“Each day the centre runs more than 50 court appointments, 65 professional appointments and around 40 phone calls for court sittings through the AVL suites,” they said.
“The centre works to ensure inmates meet their scheduled appearances consistently, and has adequate phone lines and AVL suites.”
The spokesperson said the centre had received no complaints about the issues raised from magistrates or the wider legal community in the past 12 months.
A Corrective Services NSW spokesperson said the number of virtual legal visits and AVL court appearances had increased significantly in recent years.
Corrective Services Minister Anoulack Chanthivong has agreed to meet with a delegation of lawyers from the state’s north to discuss their concerns.
