Maria is an Argentinian-born migrant who lived with her partner for 12 years before a pattern of abuse started. Maria fled the abusive relationship, and it has cost her thousands of dollars in legal fees, and the debt is rising.
"I was trying to understand. At the time you are so overwhelmed emotionally. You can't take a lot of information in. You feel very scared. You say how are you going to handle this? You just don't understand the legal terms. Solicitors speak their own language. They know the law and everything else, I am not questioning their knowledge but the bit they lack is how to communicate with an ordinary person. They speak in technical language, there is so much confusion. I went to different legal centres. You have to make appointments. These centres have free legal aids for one hour. I didn't have good experiences accessing these services."
Michal Morris, CEO of InTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence, says that 60 per cent of women who come to their centre are unaware of coercive control and gaslighting, while approximately 70 per cent are unsure about their legal rights.
Ms Morris says language and other barriers hamper accessibility to legal support, particularly when English is not their first language.
"Legal services and legal issues are incredibly complex and nuanced. A woman deserves to understand what is happening, so the only way to do that if their language skills are not strong is to use an interpreter. One of the biggest barriers for these women is interpreters are not used enough in the legal system and the quality of the interpreting sometimes is not as strong as it needs to be. So one of the biggest barriers is women literally understanding the language of what is happening to them to empower them to make decisions. And that's hugely significant I think in the system."
Women in Australia are systematically disadvantaged because Legal Aid funding for representation is strongly biased towards criminal law. In this area of law, males constitute the majority of defendants.
With an average estimated hourly rate of $500, lawyers' fees are not affordable for most people. If a person can't pay a lawyer's fees, they may be required to represent themselves before the court through a process known as self-representation.
Since 2009, Australia has implemented a number of legal aid projects both at national and state levels. None of the initiatives guarantee access to legal representation, and all of them require eligibility criteria.
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