NSW Can I Represent Myself in Criminal Court?

[Chiara]

Hi,

I went to court last week because they charged me for common assault. That day, I ask for an adjournment because Legal Aid that morning didn't give to me any lawyer.

The next court day will be on 6 September. I went to Legal Aid again yesterday to fill up the form for asking a legal support in court and they are gonna give me the answer on the same day as when I must go to court.

Now my question is: if that morning on 6 September in court, no lawyer is gonna support me in court, and my intention will be represent myself, should I have everything ready for that day? Or are they gonna book another court day? Because to represent myself is a big job and I need more time.

 

[Andrew Whitton]

Hi Chiara,

I am assuming the court appearance last week was your first appearance for this assault charge. If that is correct - a one week adjournment sounds like the Court giving you time to get legally represented and/or seek legal advice. Again if that is the case on the 6th you will be indicating whether you are pleading guilty or not guilty. A not guilty plea will mean a brief service order is made giving the prosecution generally 4 weeks to serve their evidence on you.

2 weeks after it is served you will come back to court (so that is 6 weeks from the 6th) where you will either plead guilty (after seeing the evidence) and be sentenced or confirm your not guilty plea - at which time a hearing date will be set.

If you have completed forms for Legal Aid, you should know on the morning of the 6th whether you have them or not. To be safe why don't you give the Legal Aid office a call and make sure everything is right or if there is anything you need to take care of. As a lawyer, I know Court can be a pretty daunting experience at the best of times. Not knowing what is going on makes it worse.

Hope this helps.