Demand for our services is high so we use strict criteria when granting aid for legal representation. Legal Aid Queensland’s Grants division is responsible for processing applications for legal assistance and ongoing management of matters following approval. Grants decisions are made in the Brisbane office and across our regional offices.

Applications are received electronically direct from private law firms or are submitted in paper form by clients or in-house solicitors who have provided advice or duty lawyer assistance.

We received 35,550 applications for grants of aid in 2010-11, of which 27,186 were approved.

In determining whether to approve a grant of aid, grants officers assess requests for aid in accordance with the guidelines determined by the Legal Aid Queensland Board and apply the means and merit tests. This process looks at the financial means of the person applying and the relative merit of the case. If an application is refused, internal and external review processes are available to applicants.

Funding grants of aid for private law firms

We work with private law firms – preferred suppliers – to provide access to justice for disadvantaged Queenslanders. Preferred suppliers are private practitioners who have entered into three year service agreements with us to provide legal services. In 2010-11, we worked with approximately 400 preferred suppliers to deliver legal aid services to the Queensland community. Preferred suppliers take on work on our behalf in serious crime, general crime, juvenile justice, general family and civil law matters.

We provide grants of aid to these private law firms to take on cases on behalf of Legal Aid Queensland clients. More than 80 percent of our grants of aid are provided to private law firms, with the remainder going to our in-house practices. Funding private law firms to do legal aid work makes up more than 50 percent of Legal Aid Queensland’s total expenditure.

In-house practices

Legal Aid Queensland has four Brisbane in-house practices to provide litigation services - criminal law services, family law services, civil law services and counsel. Our 13 regional offices also provide criminal, family and civil law services.

Figure 16: Applications for grants of aid received and approved by type in 2010-11

Criminal law services

Our in-house criminal law practice is the state’s largest criminal law defence practice, employing some of Queensland’s leading criminal defence lawyers. We represent children and financially disadvantaged adults charged with criminal offences before all courts in Queensland. From duty lawyer services to complex trials and appeal cases in the higher courts, we protect people’s rights and play an integral role in Queensland’s criminal justice system.

Serious crime

Our Serious Crime team specialises in the defence of complex criminal cases, including murder, major fraud, and drug prosecutions. Preparing defences for these matters is challenging and demanding, requiring extensive research, investigation and preparation.

In order to manage the cost of providing criminal law legal aid, especially in complex and very high-cost cases, our in-house practice took on a significant number of expensive cases during 2010-11.

The percentage of more serious crime matters taken in-house has increased steadily and represents 31 percent of in-house work. During 2010-11 these in-house serious crime matters included a large number of murder charges as well as the people smuggling cases transferred to Queensland. Legal Aid Queensland has an arrangement with the federal government to be reimbursed for the costs of all people smuggling cases.

Appeals

Our Appeals Unit represents people in the Queensland Court of Appeal and the High Court of Australia who want to appeal their cases, or whose sentences are being appealed by the Attorney-General. The unit also acts for people who want to pursue applications for pardons from the Governor. Legal Aid Queensland only funds appeals and pardon applications after applying the merit test, which involves experienced in-house or private counsel considering the applicant’s likely prospects of succeeding in their cases.

Legal Aid Queensland acknowledges the dedicated long service of Appeal Unit coordinator Tim Harland who has held this position for more than 25 years.

Assisting mental health clients

Our Mental Health Unit provides advice and representation for people charged with criminal offences who have been referred to the Mental Health Court. We are dedicated to helping Queenslanders affected by mental illness and strive to provide them with a voice in the justice system. The team works closely with our in-house counsel to conduct matters, representing the vast majority of non-privately represented clients appearing in the Mental Health Court.

We also appeared in matters before the Mental Health Review Tribunal; most involving confidentiality orders.

The specialist expertise of our Mental Health Unit and in-house counsel is widely acknowledged within the legal sector. David Thompson, managing lawyer from the Mental Health Unit, was invited to take part in a Queensland Law Society panel discussion on Mental Health Court matters at the society’s annual symposium. Fellow panel members included the Honourable Justices Ann Lyons and David Boddice (Supreme Court of Queensland), and Assisting Psychiatrists to the Mental Health Court Associate Professor Francis Varghese and Doctor Ness McVie. Mr Shepherd spoke on how to prepare a matter for referring to the Mental Health Court.

Dangerous prisoner applications

We continued to provide legal assistance in Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act 2003 matters. Under the Act, the Attorney-General can apply to the Supreme Court for an order to detain a convicted sex offender in prison after their court ordered sentence has been completed or, alternatively, seek that such offenders be released on a supervision order. Offenders detained under the legislation must have their continuing detention order reviewed within two years of the order first having effect, and there must then be subsequent annual reviews while the order continues to have effect.

We act for people responding to dangerous prisoner applications brought by the Attorney-General, at periodic reviews of continuing detention orders, and in contravention proceedings for respondents alleged to have contravened their supervision order.

Assisting young people in the criminal justice system

Our Youth Legal Aid team provides specialist legal assistance to children and young people in the juvenile justice system.

During 2010-11 we significantly extended our service to vulnerable children in the Greater Brisbane area by assuming the duty lawyer services for the Redcliffe, Sandgate, Wynnum, Holland Park and Pine Rivers childrens courts.

During 2010-11 we ran 62 bail applications in the Childrens Court of Queensland, a significant increase compared to the 24 bail applications made in 2009-10. In 2010-11 our bail applications achieved a 95% success rate.

We continue to work collaboratively with the Department of Communities, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service and our preferred suppliers in addressing youth remand rates, particularly for Indigenous children from rural and remote Queensland.

The Youth Legal Aid team presented information seminars to Department of Communities staff and Queensland Law Society members, contributing to their professional development and legal education training. The team also continued their advocacy role with the Youth Justice Reference Group, Queensland Law Society and other stakeholders.

Special Circumstances program

The Special Circumstances program continues to operate three days a week in the Brisbane Magistrates Court. The program is a bail and sentence-based diversionary program, designed to help adult defendants address the issues which led to their offending such as homelessness and impaired decision making as a result of drug or alcohol dependence, mental health problems, intellectual disability, and brain or neurological disorders. Defendants must meet eligibility criteria and only certain offences trigger eligibility.

The program allows participating defendants to be diverted into treatment and rehabilitation options at an appropriate stage in proceedings as a condition of their bail or sentence. We continue to work with a supportive network of agencies including MICAH, Drug Arm, Sisters Inside, Brisbane Youth Service, and the court psychologist to facilitate housing, counselling and other support for our clients.

In 2010-11 we supported the Special Circumstances program by providing two lawyers and a part-time administrative support officer to provide duty lawyer support to the court and represent most clients appearing before the court.

The supportive environment of the Special Circumstances Court continues to nurture trust and motivate clients to make the necessary changes to their lifestyle to help them break the destructive cycle of their behaviour. Change does not happen overnight and the path of rehabilitation can be difficult, however we continue to see amazing results and positive outcomes for our clients.

Addressing drug-dependency issues

Queensland’s drug courts focus on diverting drug-dependent offenders from jail by making intensive drug rehabilitation orders (IDROs) at the time of sentencing, with the aim of breaking the drug–crime cycle. Drug courts give clients facing a jail sentence for addiction-related offences the opportunity to have the term of imprisonment suspended while they complete an intensive rehabilitation program. Drug courts operate in Southport, Ipswich, Beenleigh, Townsville and Cairns.

We supply a lawyer to each court, who advocates for applicants and participates at sentencing, sanctions hearings and hearings where an IDRO termination is being sought. Our lawyers also represent participants’ legal interests as part of a multidisciplinary team while they are on a drug rehabilitation order.

Family law services

Family Law services continues to strive to meet the legal needs of clients, and to play a key and influential role in the family law system. Our in-house family law practice is the state’s largest family law practice, employing many highly experienced lawyers and social scientists.

Family and child protection lawyers provide quality legal services in accordance with practice and case management quality standards. They undertake some of the most difficult and demanding family law, child protection and domestic violence cases. They conduct work on behalf of parties in disputes before the Family Court, Federal Magistrates Court, childrens court and state magistrates courts and also in family dispute resolution processes such as family law conferences. Our lawyers liaise with refuges and other support services and provide legal advice to their clients.

Legal Aid Queensland provides grants of aid to help people who need representation in family law matters, such as dividing property after separation or arranging child support and care arrangements for their children. About 75 percent of people who apply for legal aid resolve their family law disputes at a conference instead of going to court.

Helping domestic violence victims

We represent parties in domestic violence matters through grants of aid to private law firms and through our in-house lawyers.

Our Domestic Violence Court Assistance Service provided information sessions to women dealing with domestic violence matters at the Brisbane Magistrates Court.

During the year, we also worked in conjunction with the Beenleigh Court Support Program to provide advice and representation to people in the Logan area who were applying for domestic violence protection orders in the Beenleigh Magistrates Court.

We continued to support the state government’s Breaking the Cycle of Domestic and Family Violence in Rockhampton Court Pilot project, which focusses on early intervention and integrated service delivery to assist people who have experienced domestic and family violence. We employ a specialist domestic violence lawyer to represent victims before the court and to help them apply for ongoing legal representation if they have associated family law and child protection matters. We also provide a duty lawyer at the court to assist people who have been charged with breaching domestic violence orders.

Social work

Our social workers play an integral role in delivering our legal services to vulnerable clients. Social workers support people through legal processes, chair family dispute resolution conferences, complete social assessment and family reports, and provide counselling services. We provide social work services from our Brisbane and Townsville offices.

During the year, our in-house social workers completed forensic assessment reports for independent children’s lawyers and separate representatives involved in family law and child protection matters and provided testimony before the courts.

Our social workers assisted our lawyers by providing clients with information and referrals to appropriate external organisations for help with non-legal matters such as mental health problems, substance dependencies and accommodation difficulties.

Helping people with child support issues

We provided information, referral, legal advice and representation services to clients with child support needs. We can explain how the child support formula works, how the Family Tax Benefit is affected and help negotiate child support agreements.

Children and young people

Addressing the best interests of children is key to much of the work conducted by our family and child protection lawyers. We continued to provide legal services for children and young people involved in family law and child protection matters.

Independent children’s lawyers were appointed in 881 cases in 2010-11 – a 0.4% increase on 2009-10.

Independent children’s lawyers and separate representatives provide best interests representation for children in family law matters and child protection cases, where judicial officers order that a child’s interests be separately represented.

Independent children’s lawyers and separate representatives play a unique and difficult role within the family law and child protection systems. They gather and assess independent evidence and provide measured guidance and recommendations to the courts in relation to the best interests of children and young people. The cases they work on are complex and demanding.

A significant number of appointments of independent children’s lawyers and separate representatives are made by courts exercising family law and child protection jurisdiction. Many of these matters are dealt with by specialist in-house lawyers. The in-house independent children’s lawyers and separate representatives have a great deal of experience and knowledge in relation to these cases.

In-house lawyers undertake considerable work in the Family Court of Australia’s Magellan list, which is a case management list devoted to cases where there are allegations of serious physical abuse or sexual abuse of children. Practitioners provide representation services both for parties and as independent children’s lawyers, in the Brisbane, Townsville and Cairns Registries of the Family Court.

In July and August 2010 the Brisbane Registry of the Family Court conducted a program of Magellan special sittings. The Court acknowledged the support of Legal Aid Queensland in the conduct of the sittings, in particular the role undertaken by independent children’s lawyers, both in-house and private practitioners, in preparing 36 cases listed during the period. Twenty-six cases were finalised, three judgments were reserved and one case was part heard.

Independent children’s lawyer and separate representative panel meetings and training sessions are facilitated to ensure that knowledge is shared and issues are discussed between the private practitioners on the panel and in-house specialist lawyers to ensure a consistent, quality approach to representation of children and young people.

Child protection

We are the largest legal service provider in child protection matters in Queensland, providing information and advice, representation of parents, direct representation of young people, separate representation of children and young people and limited representation in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Our Youth Advocate Catherine Moynihan was successful in obtaining a Churchill Fellowship and in 2010 completed her travel and delivered her report. The fellowship took Catherine to the United Kingdom and the United States of America and what she learnt has informed her individual advocacy and Legal Aid Queensland’s systemic advocacy. She delivered presentations to the Commission for Children and Young People and the Child Guardian, the Greater Brisbane Family Law Pathways Network and our staff and preferred suppliers.

The Child Protection Unit developed and delivered two days of training for lawyers about the role of Separate Representatives. A highlight was a session presented by the Create Foundation about participation of young people in child protection matters and other issues affecting their lives.

Nigel Miller, Melissa Britton, Catherine Moynihan and Jen Glover from the Child Protection team.

Policy

Members of Family Law services have contributed to a number of policy submissions in relation to legislative change, policies and procedures including amendments to the state government domestic violence legislation, proposed family violence provisions in the federal family law legislation and the family law courts’ review of their Family Violence Best Practice Principles.

Networking

Family Law services participates in the work of professional organisations and specialist sections of the Queensland Law Society. This ensures that Legal Aid Queensland has a visible profile within the family law and child protection community and plays a leading role in the development of legal practices in Queensland, particularly in relation to children and young people.

Civil law services

Civil Law services are recognised as leading providers of specialist civil law services to vulnerable Queenslanders. Our in-house practice specialises in criminal injuries compensation, consumer law disputes and anti-discrimination law, undertaking many complex cases in these areas, including test cases.

Consumer Protection Unit

Our Consumer Protection Unit provides specialist legal services including representation in consumer law matters. The unit spent the second half of 2010-11 focussed on assisting people affected by Queensland's floods and cyclones. You can read more about the Queensland Flood and Cyclone Legal Help response in the 'Early intervention' section.

Fiona Marrinan, Damian Mohr, Lucy McKenzie, Loretta Kreet, Julia Rigby, Jacqui Cavanagh, Margie
Matrisciano, James Beaumont, Jann Tubb and Paul Holmes from the Consumer Protection Unit.

Victims of crime

The state government introduced a new scheme to assist victims of crime, Victim Assist Queensland, in December 2009. One of the key aspects of the scheme is that it is an administrative rather than court-based process. With the new scheme’s introduction, our role in the compensation process is being significantly reduced.

In 2010-11 we continued to represent people who are eligible for compensation under the old court-based scheme. We expect to finalise all of these matters in the next year. The applications have been in courts across the state including Brisbane, Beenleigh, Townsville, Cairns, Maroochydore and Ipswich. In addition the unit has completed numerous final submissions in relation to direct applications to the Department of Justice for compensation for victims of crimes.

As these files are completed, the lawyers and support staff working in the Victims of Crime Compensation Unit will be diverted to assisting clients with other civil justice legal needs ensuring disadvantaged and vulnerable people continue to have access to our justice system.

Civil Law Legal Aid Scheme

The Civil Law Legal Aid Scheme offers help in a variety of civil litigation cases, with priority given to cases involving children, personal injury, and cases which, if not litigated, may result in the person losing their home or livelihood. The Civil Law Legal Aid Scheme was set up by the state government so that Queenslanders can obtain legal assistance for civil law matters to be heard in a Queensland court or a tribunal where there is the power to award costs.

The scheme is funded by the Public Trustee of Queensland and administered by Legal Aid Queensland in Brisbane. The Civil Law Legal Aid Scheme provides assistance with outlays associated with civil claims approved under the schemes’ guidelines and in some circumstances contributes towards the solicitors’ professional costs.

Anti-discrimination services

The Anti-Discrimination Unit provides advice and representation in all areas of anti-discrimination law including sexual harassment and complaints about race, sex, impairment, pregnancy and gender identity. The unit also contributes to Legal Aid Queensland’s policy development, law reform initiatives and community education activities about human rights and anti-discrimination laws.

Matters in which the unit provides legal representation include:

• assistance to draft complaints to the Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland or the Australian Human Rights Commission where the applicant is unable to do so themselves because of special circumstances, such as a disability, language barriers or being in custody
• advocacy at the conciliation conference in the relevant Commission
• where a complaint is not settled in the Commission, representation in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal or Federal Magistrates Court or Federal Court.

The cases we undertake generally are complex, including test cases, and to date we have been granted leave to represent our clients in each case.

Legal help for war veterans and their dependants

We receive federal funding under the War Veterans’ Legal Aid Scheme to provide assistance to veterans and their dependants to appeal Veterans Review Board decisions regarding:

• war-caused disability pension entitlements or assessment claims under Part 2 of the Veterans Entitlement Act 1986
• claims under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 about warlike or non-warlike service about:
  • accepting liability
  • rehabilitation programs
  • permanent impairment
  • incapacity payments for former members
  • special rate disability pensions
  • dependant benefits.

Grants of aid provided under the War Veterans’ Legal Aid Scheme are not subject to the means test, but funding at each stage is subject to a merit test.

Counsel

In 2010-11, our in-house team of barristers again showed their commitment to providing quality specialist legal advocacy services efficiently and effectively.

We appeared in higher court trials and sentencing hearings, including matters involving charges of murder and complex Commonwealth conspiracy charges. In addition to the considerable work performed in the criminal jurisdiction of the supreme, district and magistrates courts, we also appeared in all Mental Health Court sittings and in the Supreme Court’s civil jurisdiction for respondents in applications brought under the dangerous prisoners legislation and in some judicial review hearings. Counsel also provided advice and representation in family and civil law matters.

Our Townsville and Brisbane-based barristers also appeared in regional courts, including those in remote areas such as Mount Isa, the Gulf of Carpentaria, Thursday Island and Cape York Peninsula. We provided opinions about the prospects of matters succeeding on appeal so decisions could be made about granting aid, and conducted appeals against sentences and/or convictions in the Queensland Court of Appeal, including matters in which the Attorney-General had appealed against the sentence.

In 2011 Counsel welcomed John Allen to the role of Public Defender. John has practised as a barrister for the past 20 years, predominantly in criminal law, and has also appeared as counsel in commissions of inquiry.

The complexity and diversity of work undertaken by in-house Counsel places them among Queensland’s top defence lawyers, allowing them to be recognised and respected within the legal profession.