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Lawyers threaten legal aid ban over pay rates

Peter Gregory
November 21, 2008

VICTORIAN courts could face chaos as solicitors threaten to ban basic legal aid work for criminal cases in protest over low pay rates.

The proposed bans - expected to be debated tonight at an annual meeting of criminal lawyers - are likely to lead to court delays and cost increases throughout the state.

The proposal follows a report published last month in which Victorian barristers described legal aid fees as "enforced poverty for lawyers", and said they would prefer to do legal work for free than be insulted by the low payment.

In a statement issued yesterday, Law Institute of Victoria president Tony Burke said inexperienced solicitors were working in criminal cases for as little as 15 per cent of the normal private rate.

He said they were also being forced to perform free administrative work previously undertaken by Victoria Legal Aid.

"(Lawyers) are saying that it is adding insult to injury that they are paid so poorly and are then expected to do all this extra work for nothing. And they are not going to do it any more," Mr Burke said.

"So, there will be delays. Courts will struggle. There will be inconvenience. The cost of running courts...policing...(and) corrections will increase."

Last year, private solicitors provided work in 16,000 of the state's 25,000 criminal cases.

The proposed bans would mean clients - described in one statement as being on the margins of society - being unrepresented by solicitors in a sizeable number of Magistrates Court hearings.

Normally, solicitors appear in the hearings, which perform functions such as varying bail and community based orders, adjourning cases and deciding on diversion programs for minor offenders.

Victorian Bar chairman John Digby , QC, and Criminal Bar Association chair John Champion, SC, said they sympathised with the solicitors' stand, but said barristers were unlikely to ban legal aid cases.

Last financial year, Victoria Legal Aid reported a $20.3 million shortfall, most from Commonwealth funding, and a record number of grants for those needing legal help in court.

VLA managing director Bevan Warner said the amount of working time that lawyers could claim in lump sum fee arrangements was currently capped, but was being reviewed.

Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls said the state government had increased legal aid funding every year since coming to office, including $43.1 million last financial year.

A spokesman for federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland said the federal government provided a funding injection earlier this year for legal aid commissions, community legal centres and indigenous legal services.

"While this one-off funding helped address immediate needs, the Government recognises that there are longer term funding issues to be addressed. Future funding will be considered within the (federal) budget context," he said.

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