In some cases, committal proceedings, where the accused appears in court before a magistrate who hears the evidence and then refers the matter to another court, can cause confusion. For many traditionally oriented Aborigines, having to appear in court for any reason at all can be an unsettling and alien experience, and multiple appearances at different stages of the process add to the confusion. On the other hand Aboriginal defendants are now much more frequently represented by counsel than was the case when Kriewaldt wrote.
Committal proceedings give the defence an opportunity to hear of the prosecution case.
They also enable some testing of the evidence. For these reasons, there should be no abolition of committals for traditional Aborigines, while they remain the normal procedure for other accused persons. Fitness to Plead. Problems sometimes arise with Aboriginal defendants whose unfitness to plead is not the result of mental incapacity, or of linguistic problems which can be overcome by an interpreter, but are caused by lack of comprehension due to massive cultural barriers. The Criminal Codes of Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory have specific provisions dealing with the situation of a person unable to understand the proceedings at his trial, and these have had to be applied to traditionally oriented Aboriginal defendants in a number of cases.