Pro-bono opportunities
Pro bono opportunities - Can you help us?
In November 2010, the High Court of Australia decided that all
asylums seekers arriving offshore have the right to judicial review
if they receive a negative Independent Merit Review decision.
Previously these asylum seekers, including young children, had no
further right of appeal. There is no representation provided
for these clients n the Federal Magistrates Court.
Given the importance of this matter, CASE for Refugees has just
set up a legal clearing house here in WA, called the Judicial
Review Asylum Seeker Project ("JRASP") and are
seeking firms and barristers to help us in assisting these
clients.
What pro bono assistance is needed
CASE need support from law firms to assist with instructing
barristers and also in the initial merit assessment stage. We
have a good list of barristers that we are working with including
several Senior Counsel and all of whom are very willing to
share their experience with those who may be unfamiliar with this
area of law.
We are also looking to expand our list of Barristers and would
like to hear from anyone who may be interested.
We believe that the time involved would not be prohibitive for
your practice and we would be happy to discuss this with you
in more detail.
Instructing Firms
The sort of work involved for instructing
firms would be providing the following resources;
a) research support for Counsel, b) preparing bundles of
documents; c) attendance at hearings to support counsel, and d)
complying with various Court directions. Typically, Counsel
will prepare submissions and other Court documents and your
responsibility will lie in ensuring all documents are filed in
accordance with the Court procedures. The time frames will
vary but typically you will have several weeks to prepare documents
and bundles. You may face tighter deadlines depending on
Counsel availability, Court issued directions or respondent
applications.
Barristers
The work involved for Barristers involves preparing amended
applications, submissions and other documents as required. We
will find you an instructing solicitor, whether it be CASE or one
of our pro bono firms. You will be supported by these firms
who will ensure that filing and other administrative matters are
dealt with in accordance with Court precedures.
How helping us can benefit your practice
For many practitioners this area of the law seems to be at best,
arcane, unapproachable, and able to be safely ignored.
However, decisions from the migration area are now cited more
regularly in "general" Commonwealth administrative law; and that
Commonwealth law is finding its way increasingly into State
administrative and commercial law: see, eg, Kirk v
Industrial Court of New South Wales [2010] HCA 1; (2010)
239 CLR 531 and decisions in the seemingly further remote
areas such as the Constructions Act 2004 (WA) in
Thiess Pty Ltd v MCC Mining [2011] WASC 80 and Re
Graham Anstee-Brook; ex parte Mt Gibson [2011]
WASC 172. Also, modern commercial law is increasingly
being impacted on by the relevant administrative principles,
whether in planning, environmental, native title or other
areas.
The Judicial Review project also provides an excellent
opportunity to expose your junior solicitors to
administrative law, or litigation generally. Also, this may
present an opportunity for graduate lawyers in your office to gain
some early experience in conducting litigation and instructing
counsel. Further, your firm may be able to recoup costs
pursuant to rule 12.07(3) of the Federal Magistrates Court Rules
2001 in the event that the application succeeds.
Training - for free!
We realize that this is a fairly specialized are and that most
firms do not have experience in migration law and specifically,
offshore appeals. For this reason, we will be running a
training course to train lawyers in this area of law. There
will be CPD points available and the course will be free for those
firms who are willing to assist the project in a pro bono
capacity. Matt Howard SC will be presenting the training and
written materials will be provided. At this stage we are
envisaging that the training will take place in early February 2012
and will probably run over 2 x 3 hour sessions, probably out of
work hours. If you are interested in attending, please email
u - a brochure is attached here.