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A first-of-its-kind national survey has revealed a looming crisis in Australia’s legal aid system, driven by chronic underfunding, stagnant pay rates, and the increasing complexity of cases.
Australia’s legal aid system is on the brink of a major crisis, threatening the long-term availability of legal assistance and access to justice for the nation’s most vulnerable individuals.
A newly released report by the National Legal Aid has exposed the mounting pressures facing Australia’s legal assistance sector, sparking urgent calls for increased government support and funding to ensure continued access to justice.
The president of the Law Council of Australia, Juliana Warner, emphasised that the Legal Aid Private Practitioners 2024 Census has exposed that legal aid pay rates have remained “stagnated for more than a decade”.
She further noted that private practitioners now earn, on average, only a third of what they would review for private work when handling legal aid cases, making legal aid increasingly financially unviable.
Despite the lack of pay increases, Warner highlighted that the “complexity of cases, level of support required by the client, and time required from practitioners are all on the rise”, further exacerbating pressures on the legal aid system.
The survey found that 85 per cent of practitioners struggle with providing significant amounts of “unremunerated work”, while 77 per cent reported that “limited time and resources” hinder their ability to deliver quality legal representation.
“This survey highlights the remarkable dedication of those private practitioners who continue to deliver legal aid despite the very real financial and emotional pressures this can create.
“It tells of the stress and worry they deal with because they desperately want to continue providing legal aid and, at the same time, pay their staff and keep their practices operating,” Warner said.
As a result of these challenges, “a third of the private lawyers” providing legal aid services are considering scaling back their involvement over the next five years.
Warner expressed that chronic underfunding and the potential loss of practitioners in the legal aid sector pose a significant threat to the future accessibility of legal assistance for those in need, particularly during some of the most challenging periods of their lives.
“What we must remember is that the victims of this ongoing underfunding are those individuals who are reliant on legal aid as a source of legal advice and representation at some of the most challenging times of their lives.
“We need lawyers to continue to put their hands up to do this difficult work, and it is unrealistic to expect lawyers to continue to do this without appropriate government funding to make it sustainable,” Warner said.
Given the pivotal role that private practitioners play in providing legal assistance services nationwide, the Law Council last week urged the federal government to allocate additional funding in the upcoming federal budget to help these essential services it describes as “reaching breaking point”.
Alongside the legal aid census, the release of the 9th Biennial Pro Bono Survey last week showcased the legal professional’s border commitment to ensuring access to justice.
The survey uncovered how pro bono hours have reached record-breaking levels, with large Australian law firms contributing 704,888 pro bono hours – a significant increase from the 564,531 hours recorded in 2022.
Warner expressed that the findings of this survey, together with the National Legal Aid report, “shows how committed the entire legal profession is to ensuring access to justice for all Australians”.
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