Criminal Defence Lawyers 'stand Up For Human Rights'

The Age

Tuesday November 25, 2008

By PETER GREGORY, LAW REPORTER

CRIMINAL defence lawyers were confronting a public thirst for vengeance and retribution while they stood up for human rights, a Supreme Court judge has said.

In a lecture delivered after the justice system had received repeated criticism over delays and the treatment of crime victims, Justice Lex Lasry said defence lawyers were unsung heroes who fought for rights commonly taken for granted.

Speaking last night at the University of Melbourne, he also defended the performance of the judiciary, which he said was often accused of living in an "unreal cocoon away from the realities of life".

"We do the community's business every day. It is very real," he said.

"(We deal with) accused people charged with murder ... victims and witnesses ... the desperate and displaced ... police ... prisons and prisoners. With the futures of those participants."

Justice Lasry was delivering a human rights address on the same day the father of two murdered boys accused defence lawyers of manipulating the system.

He said community debate about the court system and alleged criminals was tense, and contained strong opinions.

Emotional cases involving brutal and callous violence committed on defenceless victims usually attracted public interest.

"Members of the public looking on ... see on their television screens the distraught families on both sides of the process," he said.

"Inevitably, people pose to themselves the question: How would I cope with such trauma?"

Justice Lasry said law professor and former Australian Broadcasting Authority chairman David Flint was wrong when he claimed the justice system worked in favour of criminals rather than law-abiding citizens.

He disputed Dr Flint's assertion that lawyers had a vested interest in favouring the alleged imbalance, adding that their responsibility was to ensure all received a fair trial.

He said public discussion of cases was important, but debate was polarised to some extent by the inevitable tension between the plight of victims and the fair trial of an accused.

In a distinguished legal career before his appointment as a judge last year, Justice Lasry appeared in court as a prosecutor and a defence counsel.

© 2008 The Age

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