The “extra” $1 million Legal Aid NT was provided by the Finocchiaro Government will not stop it cutting criminal legal services as planned, the group has indicated, while producing a handbook explaining to people representing themselves how to ask a judge to adjourn their matter.
The government pledged the $1 million in funding for Legal Aid NT last Wednesday, a day after the NT News reported that a homeless Darwin man who was facing a January trial for aggravated robbery, burglary and theft earlier this year was granted bail, after serving more than 200 days on remand with his legal funding cut and concerns around the amount of time he served while waiting for what could be an unfair trial.
This screams of political games by Legal Aid NT. I think they are angry the CLP won government and they are trying to fight the “tough on crime” mandate by clogging the legal wheels.
If Legal Aid were serious they would announce how many extra cases they’re able to take on with that additional $1M and how much extra they need to see out the financial year.
It seems to me that Legal Aid are just trying to break the system for political point scoring. Time to get rid of the lot of them and start again.
I see all that practice in family law has taught Legal Aid how to play hardball in negotiations