Legal Aid Queensland may deem a matter in the District Court or Childrens Court of Queensland as an extraordinary case if:
- the case involves voluminous material (>1,000 pages), and
- circumstances exist that will impact on the conduct of the case by lengthening the preparation time required, and
- the applicant has been provided aid for the substantive matter.
The delegation to deem a plea of guilty extraordinary in the District Court or Childrens Court of Queensland lies with a senior grants officer.
Requirements
Extension of aid requests received from preferred suppliers or in-house practitioners
Practitioners seeking a matter be deemed as an extraordinary case must lodge an extension of aid request through the Grants Online system using the appropriate information request.
Requests must be made within sufficient time to be considered by Legal Aid Queensland. Retrospective requests will be considered in accordance with Legal Aid Queensland’s policy in relation to retrospective grants of legal assistance.
Interpretation
Circumstances exist that will impact on the conduct of the case by lengthening the preparation time required
Legal aid Queensland may consider that additional preparation is warranted if:
- there are complex legal issues, such as:
- charges relating to relatively untested law (eg terrorism, double jeopardy laws)
- contested expert evidence
- there are more than 50 charges
- there are 3 or more co-accused represented by different solicitors
- the charges relate to historical sexual offences
- client characteristics significantly increase the time required to obtain instructions due to:
- an intellectual disability
- a mental illness or mental impairment
- a sensory disability
- the applicant is not proficient in English and requires an interpreter
- cultural issues
- there are more than 20 hours of audio-visual material to be viewed or listened to.
Grant(s) of aid
The grants of aid for additional preparation for an extraordinary matter in the district court or the childrens court of Queensland are:
- EC2A - Extraordinary trial in the District Court or CCQ (solicitor and counsel)
- EC2B - Extraordinary plea in the District Court or CCQ (solicitor and counsel)
Review of decisions
Decisions not to deem criminal law matters extraordinary are not appealable to the external review officer (see review of decisions).
A decision to refuse to deem a criminal law matter as extraordinary may be appealed to a senior grants officer.