costs, time and cultural differences - 3.1.11

Question 1

what are factors that impact the principles of justice?

Answer 1

• costs (cost of legal rep)
• time (court delays)
• cultural differences (culture/language barriers)

Question 2

what are costs of legal representation?

Answer 2

• main cost in criminal case is for a lawyer
• greatest financial impact on accused
• everyone has right to legal rep, not everyone can afford it
• accused can apply to VLA, CLC or pro bono lawyers but not guaranteed rep

Question 3

what are measures to address costs?

Answer 3

• provision of free legal aid through VLA/CLC
• increasing service gap, people who need low-cost aid are not helped because of financial constraints
• courts/judges adjusted processes to help self rep
• use of committal proceedings and plea negotiations to filter ‘weaker’ cases

Question 4

how does court delays affect the factor time?

Answer 4

• criminal case involves gathering evidence, interacting with witnesses, determining and deciding the charges.
• complicated cases take longer to be ready for trial (CC takes 14-16 months to be ready)
• covid-19 caused backlog

Question 5

what are measures to address delays?

Answer 5

-use of plea negotiations
Vic gov introduce temporary legislation to have judge-alone trials (with consent)
investment into digital tech allows for remote hearing to reduce backlog.

Question 6

what are cultural differences for first nations people?

Answer 6

First Nations People: law and customes differ, difficulties faced in the courtroom include:
- language barriers: some indigenous words have different meanings (kill=injure)
- direct questioning: polite to story tell and discuss
- body language: direct eye contact is disrespectful
- cultural taboos: taboo to mention dead people’s namesor gender based knowledge
- lack of understanding of court proceeding: different story every time not same story during questioning.

Question 7

what are cultural/language barriers?

Answer 7

• language other than english as first language: affects understanding documents, following court procedures, legal terms in cases
• victims may struggle to understand their rights
• humans right charter, right to have the assistance of an interpreter

Question 8

what are measures to address cultural differences?

Answer 8

• koori court help first nations people
• provision of free intepreters
• info online and in-person from VLA/CLC in many languages