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Legal Aid for Children: Some Reflections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2024

Brian Lucas
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In its Second Main Report, Law and Poverty in Australia, the Commission of Inquiry into Poverty expressed the view that “legal representation for children appearing before the children's court, whether in the criminal or protective jurisdiction, is necessary if justice is to be done.”

This view coincides with the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States of America in In re Gault. It has been said that this decision “unleashed a frontal assault on the juvenile court system.” It confirmed that juveniles were entitled to “due process” and the same protection which the Fourteenth Amendment and the Bill of Rights afforded to adults.

Type
Research Article
Information
Children Australia , Volume 4 , Issue 4 , Summer 1979 , pp. 29 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

References

1. ProfessorSackville, R., Commission of Inquiry into Poverty, Second Main Report, October 1975, “Law and Poverty in Australia”, A.G.P.S., Canberra, 1975, p.301.Google Scholar
2. (1967) 387 U.S. 1.Google Scholar
3. Lefstein, N., “In re Gault, Juvenile Courts and Lawyers”, American Bar Association Journal, September 1967, Vol. 53 p. 811.Google Scholar
4. Lefstein, op.cit.; Skoler, D.L., “The Right to Counsel and the Role of Counsel in Juvenile Court Proceedings”, The Juvenile Offender and the Law (Levy, L.W. ed.), Da Capo Press, New York, 1971.Google Scholar
5. A Report Issued by the Hon. R.F. Jackson Minister for Youth and Community Services on Proposed Child and Community Welfare Legislation, December 1978, paragraph 13.6.Google Scholar
6. Australian Law Reform Commission, Discussion Paper No. 9, Child Welfare, May 1979, p.23.Google Scholar
7. This applies to the Sydney metropolitan special children's courts, Albion Street, Yasmar and Minda. Regional Law Societies maintain rosters for the country courts.Google Scholar
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15. Sydney Morning Herald, 8th June 1979.Google Scholar