Criminal Appeals to the District or Supreme Court Legal aid is available for appeals to the District Court sitting in its criminal jurisdiction and Supreme Court, from decisions of magistrates in Local Courts, except as follows: Legal aid is not available for an appeal in a matter where legal aid would not have been available for the Local Court proceedings a severity appeal to the District Court that does not involve a custodial sentence unless there are exceptional circumstances. A custodial sentence includes - a full time gaol term - a periodic detention order, or - a home detention order It does not include a suspended sentence A grant of aid is subject to Means Test A, Merit Test A and State Criminal Law Guidelines. Where applications for legal aid for District Court appeals are made within 14 days of the date set down for the hearing of the matter, aid is only available in exceptional circumstances. In addition to the means test and Merit Test A, all appeals are subject to the "appropriateness of spending limited public legal aid funds" test. Grants of legal aid will be made only when the costs involved in providing legal aid are warranted by the likely benefit to the applicant, or, in some circumstances, the community. The Commission needs to be satisfied that the matter for which legal aid is sought is an appropriate expenditure of public legal aid funds. Aid for an appeal following a retrial is only granted in exceptional circumstances.

---

You are Required to Read the Copyright Notice & Disclaimer | Webmaster | Feedback

---

The information contained on this page is not legal advice. If you have a legal problem you should talk to a lawyer before making a decision about what to do. The information on this page is written for people resident in, or affected by, the laws of New South Wales, Australia only.