Territory Stories

Annual Report 1992-1993 Northern Territory Legal Aid Commission

Details:

Title

Annual Report 1992-1993 Northern Territory Legal Aid Commission

Other title

Tabled Paper 1825

Collection

Tabled Papers for 6th Assembly 1990 - 1994; Tabled Papers; ParliamentNT

Date

1993-11-23

Description

Deemed

Notes

Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory under Standing Order 240. Where copyright subsists with a third party it remains with the original owner and permission may be required to reuse the material.

Language

English

Subject

Tabled papers

File type

application/pdf

Use

Copyright

Copyright owner

See publication

License

https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2021C00044

Parent handle

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/307672

Citation address

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/339045

Page content

ALICE SPRINGS OFFICE The Alice Springs Office on the Northern Territory Legal Aid Commission provides full legal services in criminal, civil, work health and family law, a duty solicitor at court each day and 2 free clinic sessions to the community each week. In addition, the office provides free legal representation on request to people facing involuntary detention at the psychiatric ward at the hospital and general advise to those detained at the hospital and at the gaol. CRIMINAL LAW A large proportion of the work is criminal law ranging from first time juvenile offenders with minor matters through extremely complex and serious criminal matters. The lawyers appear for clients in guilty pleas and as Counsel in defended matters in the Juvenile Courts, the Court of Summary Jurisdiction and the Supreme Court. There are a large number of summary and committal hearings, but few Supreme Court trials. Almost al I Supreme Court matters have been resolved by plea in recent times. Some extremely interesting work has been in acting for aboriginal clients when CAALAS has a conflict of interest. CIVIL LAW A number of personal injury matters are handled in the Local, Supreme and Work Health Courts. Theofficedealswith a large numberof criminal injury compensation applications and a considerable amount of drafting documents for Local Court or Small Claims matters in which the Legal Aid Commission does not grant full assistance. FAMILY LAW CASE WORK The office assists a very significant proportion of the Alice Springs community in a full range of family law work from contested child custody matters to negotiated settlements of access and custody, property settlement and dissolution. CLINIC ADVICE The office has found itself in the position of assisting an increasing number of people in drafting court documentsin interstate and local proceedings, particularly since the new Local Court forms invite litigants to seek help from their local legal aid office. Members ofthe publicobtain legal advice and minor assistance with any issue within the competency of the legal staff. Northern Territory Legal Aid Commission Annual Report 1992-1993 29