my past work experience at Legal Aid - part 4

Monday 19-8-2002

I can’t believe it! Today I managed to find styrofoam cups for my morning cup of tea and what a difference did that make! That was the highlight of my day by far! I began the day reading a case file on a de-facto couple charged with torture (maximum jail term of 14 years) of their 7-year-old son. The boy was a problem child having been previously suspended from school for karate chopping and kicking the school principal. The mother was on some sort of medication for minor mental health problems and the father was only his stepfather. The boy was hit because he wouldn’t tell his parents who he gave the family’s expensive Playstation games to. This was the first time that the boy had been hit resulting in such noticeable scars and I personally think that the parents should not have been charged at all. You’ve got to at least give them a chance. I mean, to be charged with such a serious offence for a one-off mistake is pretty harsh. In any case, the boy’s injuries weren’t that severe. Furthermore, if the boy wasn’t a minor but an adult, the parents probably would’ve gotten away with it. Now, if we are going to keep suing people over such minor matters, it’s no wonder that the courts are so clogged up with people having to wait years before their case gets heard by the court! Such a waste of resources!

At 9:45am, my unit co-ordinator and I proceeded to the Magistrate Court because he had a client up for trial in Court 6 for common assault (for brandishing a fish knife). The client had already been in jail for approximately 60 days and had previously breached a domestic violence order. The female judge (who apparently really like to see expert reports) gave our client an 18 month probation order with lots of restrictions. The client thought that maybe he would’ve been better off with a two-month jail term but my unit co-ordinator explained to him that a probation order is better because no conviction is recorded. He told me later that he thought the sentence was harsh, though not excessive. He further stated that but for the judge, the client would probably have got a smaller sentence. I initially thought that the sentence was fair but after hearing what my unit co-ordinator had to say, I now too think that the sentence was harsh, perhaps the probation order should only have been for 6 months. This man had already suffered enough and was placed in a lose-lose situation. Our client has four kids and apparently his wife (who he still very much loves) left him for another man 20 years her junior.

After lunch I spent the whole afternoon doing some research on the intranet and in the library on access to justice but I failed to find anything useful.