A leading Northern Territory legal service’s proposal to dramatically cut back critical services from next year has raised concerns vulnerable adults will have no choice but to represent themselves in court.
The NT Legal Aid Commission offers free legal advice to Territorians and provides lawyers to run cases for people with legal problems across the NT.
In a letter addressed to key stakeholders on September 27, seen by the ABC, Legal Aid NT’s former acting director Fiona Hussin said the body would have to scale back services from January 1 due to insufficient funding, following meetings with the NT government.
“Unfortunately, the board does not have confidence that additional funds needed will be provided at all, or within a time frame which enables Legal Aid NT to continue on a ‘business as usual’ basis,” she wrote.
“As reliable advice on additional funding has not been forthcoming, the Board has approved a budget for the 2024/25 financial year based on the implementation of a number of measures which will significantly curtail expenditure.”
Ms Hussin has since resigned from her position at Legal Aid NT, with Jaquie Palavra assuming the role of acting director.
Ms Palavra has been approached for comment.
Legal Aid NT offers free legal representation for people in court. (ABC News: Hamish Harty)
The proposed changes mean from January 1, Legal Aid NT will refuse to accept new adult clients charged with criminal offences, and will terminate legal aid for all matters concerning adults listed for trial or hearing beyond that date.
The service will also cease all remote court services, stop grants of aid for referrals for criminal law services in remote “bush courts”, and will limit crime duty lawyer services to Legal Aid lawyers only, meaning private practitioners will no longer be contracted to provide duty services at a court or tribunal.
“While we will make every endeavour to scale back services in a way that causes as little disruption as possible, we regret that these measures will also impact on the justice system, including vulnerable clients and the courts,” Ms Hussin wrote.
Criminal lawyers fear cuts will have ‘devastating effect’
Legal Aid NT has come under sustained pressure in recent months due to “ongoing instability” at the territory’s top Aboriginal legal service, the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA).
NAAJA is the main legal aid service for Aboriginal Territorians, who make up 84 per cent of the NT’s prison population.
In recent years, turmoil at NAAJA has led to a mass exodus of lawyers, a revolving door of acting chief executive officers and a suspension of criminal services.
The dysfunction has left Legal Aid NT and other services to plug the gaps in a jurisdiction with Australia’s highest incarceration rates and a new government pushing to toughen bail laws.
Legal Aid NT’s proposed changes have raised alarm bells for criminal lawyers in the territory.
Clancy Dane, principal lawyer at Territory Criminal Lawyers, is among dozens of private practitioners who will no longer receive referrals from Legal Aid NT under the measures.
He said it means vulnerable clients will have no choice but to represent themselves in a system that is already “severely overstretched and under-resourced”.
Clancy Dane says the changes will leave vulnerable clients worse off. (ABC News: Xavier Martin)
“With these cuts it is unlikely that anyone who can’t afford a lawyer will be getting a fair trial in the Northern Territory,” he said in a statement.
“We regularly see people mistakenly charged or over charged with offences by police.
“These cuts will have a devastating effect on those people.”
Thalia Anthony, a professor of law at the University of Technology Sydney, said community legal services around Australia have previously had to cut services due to a lack of funding.
Thalia Anthony says the funding cuts could leave more Territorians on remand for longer. (Supplied)
However, she said “for this to happen in Legal Aid and on such a large scale, for me, appears unprecedented”.
“We could have increasing numbers of people in remand trying to prepare cases without any legal knowledge,” she said.
“We’ll just end up with more people in prison, and potentially more people who are serving more time in prison longer than their sentence.”
The NT’s Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby did not answer a series of questions from the ABC.
Marie-Clare Boothby says the NT government will continue to push for more Commonwealth funding. (ABC News: Chris Fitzpatrick)
Instead, she said in a statement: “NT Legal Aid 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,” she said.
However, a spokesperson for the federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus KC moved to distance the Commonwealth from Legal Aid NT’s funding woes.
“The issues raised are related to the Northern Territory government’s funding to the NT Legal Aid Commission,” the spokesperson said.
“The current National Legal Assistance Partnership (NLAP) doesn’t expire until 30 June 2025 and there have been no Commonwealth funding cuts under this agreement.”
Legal Aid NT has been contacted for comment.
