A roundtable discussion today facilitated by the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute (TLRI) and the Attorney-General Vanessa Goodwin is an important step toward improved access to justice for vulnerable Tasmanians.
The Roundtable sets the foundations for the TLRI to examine the feasibility of an expert intermediary scheme aimed at ensuring victims of crime, witnesses and defendants who have complex communication needs are heard and have their rights to a fair trial recognised.
The Attorney-General said she was pleased to be able to support the TLRI to facilitate today’s roundtable conversation with over 20 key government, community and private sector stakeholders on this concept.
“The Tasmanian Government recently approved a grant of over $16,000 from the Solicitors’ Guarantee Fund to the TLRI to examine how intermediaries could help to make it easier and less confronting for children, people with cognitive impairments, intellectual disabilities, language disorders and more complex communication needs to provide reliable evidence in court,” Dr Goodwin said.
Ms Terese Henning, Director of the TLRI, said an intermediary scheme has the potential to improve access to justice for the most vulnerable in our community, ensuring that children, victims of crimes, witnesses and defendants with complex communication needs are supported from the time of complaint, summons or charge through to the trial process.
“Many of the barriers to obtaining reliable evidence from people with complex communication needs relate to comprehension and communication challenges that are exacerbated by the adversarial trial.
“The aim of an expert intermediary or communicator scheme is to enable those with complex communication needs to participate fully in the justice process, maintaining the integrity of the evidence gathering process while adhering to the principles of a fair trial.”
Tasmania already has some special measures in place to support children and witnesses with complex communication needs in giving evidence at criminal trials. These measures include the ability for witnesses to give their evidence via closed circuit television and/or by pre-recorded video statements, and to have support persons with them while they are giving evidence.
Ms Henning said that an intermediary scheme would complement and strengthen existing special measures, providing a more comprehensive approach that improves equality of access to justice.
Intermediary schemes already exist in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Norway, Western Australia, New South Wales, and South Australia.
Following today’s roundtable conversation and further one-on-one consultations, the TLRI will prepare an Issues Paper, to be released in November 2015, and a Final Report which is expected to be delivered in March 2016.
The TLRI’s work will identify measures needed to assist vulnerable people in giving evidence or appearing as defendants in the criminal trial process.
Vanessa Goodwin, Attorney-General Terese Henning, Director, Tasmanian Law Reform Institute
