Low-income adults and children in jail denied lawyers over Christmas
Legal Aid NT's board decided against exempting children from sweeping service cuts in November. (ABC News: Hamish Harty)
In short:
The Northern Territory's Legal Aid commission will not consider any more applications to fund legal defences until January.
The commission reached its self-imposed monthly cap on aid, one part of a range of cost-saving measures introduced last month.
What's next?
All applications for new grants of aid, or extensions of aid, will be considered in the new year.
Low-income adults and children in Northern Territory jails could be denied access to lawyers over Christmas and New Year's Eve because the NT's Legal Aid Commission has reached a monthly funding limit.
Since last month, Legal Aid NT (LANT) has only funded the criminal court cases for adults and youths in custody.
It was a move national observers warned would have serious consequences for the NT's most marginalised.
Legal aid services provide people unable to afford a lawyer with access to free legal representation. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)
A letter sent from LANT to NT lawyers on Tuesday — leaked to the ABC — revealed even children and adults in custody will be denied grants of funding for the rest of the month.
The measure means LANT will only take on criminal matters where its in-house and duty lawyers have capacity over the Christmas period.
Nationally, private lawyers take on about 70 per cent of legal aid cases, with legal aid lawyers responsible for the remaining 30 per cent.
"All extension requests received this month that have not been actioned will be considered in January," the letter said.
Over the Christmas period, NT judges only hear bail applications and urgent matters, such as applications for domestic violence orders.
LANT's offices will close from December 25 until January 5.
LANT is an independent commission set up under NT law to provide legal support to those unable to afford a private lawyer.
It is jointly funded through the NT and Commonwealth government, with the NT government responsible for funding criminal cases.
Last month, the ABC revealed LANT had taken "drastic measures" to deal with a funding shortfall threatening to plunge the service's budget into a significant deficit.
Those measures included ceasing funding to matters other than those in custody and imposing the monthly cap.
The measures sparked concern vulnerable NT residents — including children and Aboriginal people who spoke a first language other than English — could spend more time in prison due to a lack of legal representation.
The lack of services will also affect children, who could lose access to legal representation until January. (ABC News: Jayden O'Neill)
Legal Aid had been in a similar financial position about a year prior in 2024, before receiving an almost $4 million bailout from the NT government.
At the time, the number of cases LANT was funding had climbed, but the funding for its services had not kept pace.
The NT government has refused to provide further funding to address LANT's current financial crisis, with a spokesperson for the Attorney-General's Department saying LANT was responsible for its own sustainable management.
Justice issues trigger challenge in the High Court
The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) on Tuesday launched a High Court challenge to the NT's recently overhauled bail laws on the grounds they are unlawful and amount to "punishment without trial".
The prison population has been climbing steadily for several years, but skyrocketed in the Country Liberal Party's first year in government, as it tightened bail laws, youth justice laws and the criminal code.
Almost half of all prisoners in the NT are now on remand — meaning they are yet to be found guilty or sentenced for a crime — something a United Nations working group was alarmed to discover on a recent visit to Australia.
The Law Society NT, the jurisdiction's peak body for lawyers, has warned LANT's service cuts would add to existing pressures on the courts, creating an "untenable situation".
LANT has been contacted for comment.