Criminal Law

Civil Laws

Legal Services

NAAJA works together with Aboriginal communities, key government and non-government stakeholders to manage the delivery of services in a professional, culturally proficient and community sensitive manner.

Our Criminal and Civil Law services are delivered throughout the Northern Territory.

NAAJA has an information barrier between our criminal section and our civil section. That is why we have separate contact details for our different sections.

For more on information barriers, download the PDF Document by clicking here.

Key Areas of Service Delivery

  • Criminal Law representation and advice.
  • Civil Law representation and advice.
  • Custody Notification Service (CNS)

 

Means Test

To ensure we direct our services and limited resources towards applicants in greatest need of assistance, all applications for Aboriginal legal services are subject to a means test.

Depending upon the results of the means test, applicants will fall into one of three categories:

  1. Applicants eligible to receive free legal assistance
  2. Applicants eligible to receive legal assistance subject to payment of contributions (on a sliding scale) towards the cost of assistance
  3. Applicants not eligible to receive legal aid assistance

An applicant automatically satisfies the means test if one of the following applies:

  1. They are under the age of 18
  2. Their main source of income comes from Centrelink benefits
  3. Their gross personal income is less than $46,000 per annum ($885 per week)

Note: Means testing only applies to Casework matters

NAAJA will assist Aboriginal people through the delivery of the following services:

 

Criminal Law 

NAAJA will provide the following:

  • Advice
  • Duty work
  • Casework

The Criminal Law practice will represents Aboriginal clients:

  • On criminal charges in the Local Court, and Supreme Court
  • In all Courts sittings in urban and remote regions
  • The Court of Criminal Appeal and in some circumstances the High Court of Australia

NAAJA will also provide:

  • Legal advice over the phone or face to face about criminal charges or police investigations
  • 24 hour legal advice when people are arrested or taken into police custody

NAAJA will provide specialised services for vulnerable persons including:

  • Providing clients with skilled and qualified interpreters in their own language or signing system.
  • Representing defendants who are deaf or having have  hearing loss, mental health issues including those unfit to be tried by reason of mental impairment

 

Civil and Family  Law 

The Civil and Family Law solicitors will provide advice on all areas of civil law and representation in areas such as:

  • Legal representation in child protection matters
  • Complaints
  • Compensation claims
  • Child protection matters
  • Adult guardianship matters
  • Statutory compensation
  • Consumer matters (e.g. credit, debt, motor vehicle sales and repairs)
  • Health care complaints
  • Discrimination and human rights
  • Coronial inquests
  • Employment
  • Appealing debts (waiver and reduction)• Decisions about payments (refusals to grant, non-payment periods and rates of payment)
  • Decisions about living arrangements (marriage-like relationships, care of children)
  • Family tax benefit issues
  • Income management exemptions
  • Basics card issues
  • Terminations
  • Repairs
  • Debts
  • Priority housing applications