Despite this increase in demand by Aboriginal people no additional funding has been provided to the LAC to enable it to adequately meet the situation. The geographical area that ALS country offices are required to service are vast. For example, in the East Kimberley area ALS has one solicitor and one court officer based at Kununurra and another court officer based at Halls Creek. Collectively they are intended to cover an area extending from Kalumburu, the most northerly settlement in the State, to Balgo on the edge of the central desert in the south. In addition, with current staffing levels, ALS officers are overburdened with work in the criminal jurisdiction.
Inadequate time is available to deal with civil matters and legal education.
A study in the early 1980s examined the way in which summary courts in Western Australia dealt with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal defendants comparing seven towns from different regions of the state. The study by Martin and Newby was concerned to assess the access of Aboriginal people to legal advice, to establish whether the presiding judicial officers were lay Justices of the Peace or Stipendiary Magistrates and whether the courts were administered independently of the police. The study examined courts located at Midland, Broome, Kununurra, Wyndham, Halls Creek, Narrogin and Gnowangerup. This Commission has no reason to conclude that the situation has improved to any great extent since that study was carried out. Legal representation is often the key to improving the outcome of charges heard against defendants.