Following the Court of Appeal’s decision in Chaouk — discussed here — Victoria Legal Aid last week announced that it was restoring funding for solicitors when required in criminal trials.It’s certainly welcome news, and will prevent what looked like an impending logjam in quite a few trials.But it hasn’t really addressed the chronic underfunding by the …
Continue reading Criminal trial funding restored, but Legal Aid still needs help
Edit: Austlii now has R v Chaouk online.Today in R v Chaouk [2013] VSCA 99, the Court of Appeal rejected an application by the DPP to appeal Justice Lasry's decision in February to stay a murder trial until VLA agreed to fund an instructing solicitor.The original decision was R v Chaouk [2013] VSC 48. That decision …
Recent events in Afghanistan and Iraq brought the intelligence communities' phrase 'blowback' to public consciousness.At its most basic, it's about unintended consequences; often ones that the actor actual intended to avoid, and yet by their actions, brought about.Recent legal aid cuts in Victoria might be a case in point.The UK has also recently gone through …
Edit: The judgment referred to below can now be found on AustLII (suitably redacted), as MK v Victoria Legal Aid [2013] VSC 49.On Monday the Supreme Court will rule on an application in a murder trial for an order directing Victoria Legal Aid to,provide legal representation to the accused necessary for the accused to receive …
I'm on my way home from the Law Institute of Victoria meeting discussed here on Thursday. Properly described, it was an Extraordinary Meeting of the LIV's Criminal Law Section.Lawyers came from far and wide to express their concerns. The meeting tonight was Standing Room Only. Many asserted their staunchly-held belief VLA is moving in the …