Western Australian Consolidated Acts Western Australian Consolidated Acts (1) In the performance
of its functions the Commission shall —
(a)
ensure that legal assistance is provided in the most effective, efficient and
economical manner;
(aa)
ensure that its activities are carried on consistently with, and do not
prejudice, the independence of the private legal profession;
(ab)
liaise with professional bodies representing private practitioners in order to
facilitate the use, in appropriate circumstances, of services provided by
private practitioners;
(ac)
make maximum use of services that private practitioners offer to provide on a
voluntary basis;
(b)
establish such local offices as it considers appropriate and generally use its
best endeavours to make legal assistance available to persons throughout the
State;
(c)
subject to agreements or arrangements made between the Commonwealth and the
State from time to time in that behalf, determine or vary priorities in the
provision of legal assistance as between classes of persons or classes of
matters, or both;
(d)
liaise and cooperate with relevant agencies of the Commonwealth having
functions relating to legal assistance;
(e)
determine the matters or classes of matters (in addition to the matters
mentioned in paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) of the interpretation legal aid
in section 4) in respect of which legal services may be performed on
behalf of assisted persons by way of legal aid;
(f)
determine guidelines to assist legal aid committees in the exercise of the
power of delegation conferred on them by section 28;
(g)
determine guidelines to assist legal aid authorities in making determinations
for the purposes of section 38 having regard to —
(i)
the importance of maintaining the independence of the
private legal profession;
(ii)
the desirability of an assisted person being entitled to
select the legal practitioner whom he wishes to act for him;
(iii)
the desirability of enabling officers of the Commission
to utilize and develop their expertise and maintain their professional
standards by conducting litigation and doing other kinds of professional legal
work;
(iv)
the need for legal services to be readily available and
easily accessible to disadvantaged people;
(h)
initiate and carry out educational programmes designed to promote an
understanding by the public, and by sections of the public who have special
needs in this respect, of their rights, powers, privileges and duties under
the laws of the Commonwealth and of the State;
(i)
determine guidelines to be observed by legal aid
authorities and review committees in performing their functions under
sections 37, 39, 44, 48, 49 and 49A;
(j)
cooperate with persons administering other schemes of legal assistance in the
State and elsewhere;
(k)
encourage and permit law students to participate, so far as the Commission
considers it practicable and proper to do so, on a voluntary basis under
professional supervision, in the provision of legal assistance by the Director
and the staff.
(1a) Whenever this Act
confers a power, or imposes a duty, on the Commission to make a determination
or to give a direction, that power or duty shall be deemed, unless the
contrary intention appears to include a power —
(a) to
revoke the determination or direction;
(b) to
revoke the determination or direction and substitute therefor a fresh
determination or direction; or
(c) to
vary the determination or direction.
(2) The Commission
shall make recommendations to the Attorney General with respect to any reforms
of the law the desirability for which has come to its attention in the course
of the performance of its functions.
(3) Subject to and in
accordance with any agreement or arrangement made between the Commonwealth and
the State in that behalf, the Commission may provide financial assistance to
voluntary legal assistance bodies in the State in respect of the provision of
legal assistance.
(4) Financial
assistance under subsection (3) shall be provided out of moneys made
available for that purpose by the State and the Commonwealth or by one or
other of them.
[Section 15 amended by No. 60 of 1977
s. 10; No. 126 of 1982 s. 5; No. 73 of 1992 s. 5; No.
21 of 2008 s. 674(7).]