the impact of costs, time and cultural differences on the achievement of the principles of justice

Question 1

What are the measures in place to address costs

Answer 1

-VLA and CLCs can provide free legal rep to a portion of society that satisfies the means test

-Using committal proceedings can determine if a case has enough evidence to go to court, saving the costs of going to trial, including the court fees, and fees for representation.

• Using plea negotiations avoid the need for trial thus reduces fees endured

Question 2

What are measures to address delays

Answer 2

-Plea negotiations reduce delays by achieving an early guilty plea meaning cases do not need to proceed to trial.

Question 3

what are Difficulties faced by abos

Answer 3

-Language barriers- they interpret english in a different way which can cause misunderstanding

• Direct questioning- abos believe they should have discussions through stories rather than answering direct questions

-Body language- abos believe it is rude to look someone in the eyes so they avoid eye contact which may make them unreliable and uninterested to those who don’t know the culture.

-Cultural taboos, they don’t like to talk about those who have passed and those who are a disgrace to society as well as gender based business

• Lack of understanding of the court processes and procedures- some coons abos don’t understand why stories need to be told more then once so they may change the story to avoid offending the official

Question 4

What are the measures to address cultural differences

Answer 4

• Access to interpreters
• Vla provides its legal information in many different languages for people to understand in their own language
• The Koori court of abos, sentencing court, uses an abo elder and plain english as well as a less formal setting