It's Courting Disaster
Newcastle Herald
Monday January 12, 2009
NSW Attorney General John Hatzistergos put out a press release last Wednesday about the NSW Government's phone and internet legal information service, LawAccess.
It said a lot of things. There were 180,000 inquiries last year. Numbers rose by 23 per cent over 2007 figures and "95 per cent of users surveyed said they were highly satisfied with the service".It didn't say how large the survey was, what questions were asked, or what criteria were used to establish high satisfaction. But no matter. It all sounded fine and dandy.What the press release didn't say was that positions are being shed in the department, some face-to-face services have ended and senior positions have been left unfilled.The impact will be felt in courts across the state this year.Greg O'Donohue is principal industrial officer for the Public Service Association. Only a couple of weeks before the attorney general's office put out its press release, under the heading "Record demand for free legal information", the PSA was told 80 temporary court positions would not be filled."Those positions are people doing counter work at courts, helping people, and I'm yet to see a court where staff aren't run off their feet," Mr O'Donohue said.The PSA also has been informed chamber registrars across NSW senior, experienced court staff providing face-to-face assistance for offenders, victims, domestic violence, family law and civil claims clients won't be doing so anymore.Mr O'Donohue has been advised 12 or 13 of 15 NSW chamber registrars are being redeployed. These are senior grade staff with at least 10 years' experience behind them. What redeployment means is unclear, he said."It's cost cutting. We've been notified changes are being made and the department's restructuring, but when we raise issues we get no answers," he said.A few months ago I was in court helping a 20-year-old male who was one point over his green P-plate demerit points. Six points were lost for driving to work at 6am on New Year's Day doing 15 kilometres above the speed limit.He was appealing against the decision because he needed his licence for work.He wanted to know if it was worth his while to get a solicitor the standard question people ask but often a difficult one to answer.In this case it wasn't so difficult. The court had a traffic offenders' program, he was referred to it, completed the program and went on his way. He was rattled by several of the sessions, I might add. Particularly the session where a quadriplegic man in a wheelchair spoke about the crash that changed his life.The point is he might have paid a solicitor for an outcome that was already fairly set, but for the fact I hang around courts enough to know that in his case, he didn't need one.I rang LawAccess on Friday and ran the young man's scenario past a nice woman who answered the phone. After reading me a number of pieces of information from department sheets, she said she could pass my details to the Law Society and it could provide me with a list of names of solicitors in my area.I stress that she was helpful, not in a rush, and asked several times if I understood what she was saying. At the end she read from an "internal resource"."It says here, and it's in bright red letters, that 'You should get legal advice before you go to court'," she said.I checked the internet site www.lawaccess.nsw.gov.au.There was a lot of information. Plenty of headings. Under "traffic offences" you are directed to the RTA. The information is about fines and penalties, but not about what happens when you get to court. I stopped reading.My concern, and the concern of Greg O'Donohue and others, is that another public service has been narrowed, the service in its place is too generic, and the people who are least likely to be able to afford it will be spending money out of fear they are not going to get a fair go.Or they won't have the money to spend and they'll feel more marginalised, which is a greater concern.Marginalised, disadvantaged people feel powerless. They're the ones we see in courts. Another faceless response from the powerful is just ramming the point home.jmccarthy@theherald.com.au
© 2009 Newcastle Herald
