These developments illustrate that decisions are now being made which will have a significant impact on the justice system of the future. Where the judicial system, legal aid and the funding of legal services will be in the year 2010 will depend upon where we draw the lines between what I might suggest are 'real values', and the 'real costs' of upholding those values. While the system in 2010 will be a product of balancing these values and costs, and a product of the lines that we draw between them, we do not know whether we will have at that time a system which adequately protects and safeguards real values. This is a matter of great concern. The Law Council believes that it must pay a leading role in identifying essential values in the justice system and ensure that they are upheld.
Real values are to be found in both the criminal and civil justice systems.
They may be found in the need to product important individual rights as well as in the need to safeguard the right of those individuals to a fair judicial process. Real Costs' of the Justice System Costs must be met by governments, by the Commissions and by all legal service providers, including the private legal profession. Because these costs are real, and resources limited, the weight to be placed on virtually all values must be assessed continually. In the provision of government funding, difficult lines are to be drawn between legal aid funding and access to justice funding. For private legal service providers, the lines drawn reflect the number of varied and rather desperate innovations they have made in order to meet the real costs of providing legal services to uphold real values.