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Private practitioners ‘reaching breaking point’, need more funding: LCA
Given the pivotal role that private practitioners play in providing legal assistance services nationwide, the Law Council has urged that the federal budget allocate additional funding to this critical area, where professionals are overworking but underpaid.
Grace Robbie
Private legal practitioners are currently confronting substantial challenges in providing assistance and ensuring equitable access to justice for all individuals, primarily due to the inadequate funding allocated to their initiatives.
With the increasing pressures on the system, the Law Council of Australia has called for the federal government to allocate additional funding in the upcoming federal budget to help these essential services it describes as “reaching breaking point”.
The president of the Law Council, Juliana Warner, stressed that the legal aid system in Australia “operates under a mixed model” whereby legal aid commissions (LACs) engage members of the private legal profession to handle cases “at significantly reduced rates”.
This collaboration, Warner explained, allows LACs to benefit from the “in-house expertise, experiences, acumen and geographic reach” of private legal professionals.
However, private practitioners are being pushed to their limits, with Warner referencing the 2024 Justice on the Brink Report, which indicated that “72 per cent of legal aid approved matters are assigned to private practitioners”.
Yet, Warner revealed that the rates these practitioners are being paid are “appallingly low” given their work’s “difficult and complex” nature.
Warner articulated that, due to the limited support they are currently receiving, “it is becoming increasingly unviable for the private profession to offer support to legal aid clients, especially in rural and remote communities, under current conditions”.
Consequently, she emphasised that this situation results in many individuals being left “without the legal help they require to navigate complex legal systems such as family law disputes”.
In its pre-budget submission, the Law Council has reiterated its recommendation to the federal government regarding a significant proposal from Dr Warren Mundy’s report on the National Legal Assistance Partnership, which advocates “for the Commonwealth to provide funding that enables legal aid rates to private practitioners to be aligned with court scales”.
Current data provided to the Law Council shows that “across a range of family law property and parenting disputes, payments received from LACs are consistently just 25–30 per cent of what would otherwise have been received had the same matter been taken on privately”.
When you combine this data with the substantial volume of pro bono work lawyers in this area already engage in, Warner stated that these “lawyers are stretched across the board”.
“Lawyers have demonstrated their commitment to access to justice, but they cannot do it alone.
“The Law Council continues to call on governments to do their bit to ensure delivery of essential legal services by providing adequate funding,” Warner said.
