TIGHTENING of eligibility guidelines for access to State
Government-funded legal aid is set to increase the number of people facing Swan
Hill Magistrate’s Court without legal representation.
Earlier this month,
Victoria Legal Aid announced stricter eligibility guidelines to ensure its
services remained financially sustainable in the face of record demand for legal
assistance.
Changes to be introduced from January 7 include limiting parent
funding in family law matters to trial preparation and providing representation
at a trial only when the other party has a privately funded or pro-bono lawyer,
capping instructing solicitor fees in indictable crime trials to two half-days
and stricter rules on funding criminal appeals, with no funding where the appeal
does not have a reasonable prospect of changing a client’s total sentence or
non-parole period.
Victoria Legal Aid managing director Bevan Warner said
the new restrictions on legal aid for family law matters would mean more people
would be representing themselves in court.
For more on this story, see Friday’s edition of The Guardian (28/12/12).
