Charged in WA? Duty Lawyers, the Legal Aid Wrinkle & What Lawyers Cost

Transcript

Charged in Western Australia with a court date coming at you. Maybe you are in Perth. Maybe you are a day's drive from it because this is the biggest state in the country, and the courts are spread accordingly. Here is how you get a lawyer in the West when the clock is running and what it costs. First, know you are in good company. On our own hotline, no state asks about getting a lawyer urgently more than Western Australia. Of everyone who rings about it, one in four say court is today or tomorrow, and nearly all of them say it simply cannot wait.

Your first safety net is the duty lawyer at the magistrate's court. They can tell you where you stand, explain your options and usually appear beside you in court that same day. If you decide to plead guilty, they can speak for you at sentencing what they cannot do is run a trial for you that takes your own lawyer, arranged ahead of time. Now the West Australian wrinkle most people do not know. For charges that stay in the magistrate's court, ongoing grants of legal aid are normally not available unless the case is unusually serious or complex or is headed to a higher court.

So for a run of the mill charge, the realistic choices are the duty lawyer on the day or a private lawyer you arrange yourself. Before the day, ring the Legal Aid WA Infoline on the number on screen. They can give advice and tell you whether your case is one of the exceptions. If you are Aboriginal, the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia has criminal lawyers across the state, and their details are in the description below. What does a private criminal lawyer cost? Junior lawyers: roughly two hundred dollars to four hundred dollars an hour senior lawyers more.

For a single appearance or a guilty plea, many firms will give you one fixed price for the whole job, and they must set their costs out in writing before the real work starts, so you are never left guessing. And we'll you