Impact of Private versus Public Legal Representation on Criminal Proceedings, The

Aim: To investigate the impact of publicly funded private versus in-house legal representation on indictable criminal proceedings. Method: Data was obtained from Legal Aid NSW on every indictable criminal law grant of aid in NSW between 2012 and 2016. Legal Aid NSW assigns criminal law cases to either a private or in-house defence lawyer. These data were linked to BOCSAR's criminal courts database to obtain a rich set of information including defendant characteristics, and prior offending history. Focusing on indictable offences only, we compare the probability that cases assigned to private or in-house lawyers are dealt with summarily, are committed for sentencing or result in a late guilty plea. Results: On average, publicly funded cases assigned to private lawyers are less likely to be dealt with summarily or to be committed for sentence even after controlling for a wide range of defendant and case characteristics. In addition, matters assigned to private lawyers are more likely to result in a late guilty plea. Conclusion: Legal Aid NSW indictable matters assigned to private defence lawyers are more likely to be finalised at a later stage in proceedings and are more likely to be finalised in the Higher Court.