The Western Australia (WA) government has banned unvaccinated lawyers and all other staff from attending courtrooms, prompting anger from some law experts who believe the directions fundamentally inhibit justice.
Under the order of the WA chief health officer, from Feb. 5, all court and tribunal staff—including lawyers and jurors—will need to have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
By Mar. 5, this will change to allow only the fully vaccinated, which includes requiring those eligible to receive a third booster dose.
Augusto Zimmermann, former law reform commissioner and head of law at Sheridan Institute of Higher Education, expressed concern over the decision and its implication towards clients who use the services of unvaccinated lawyers.
“I’m starting to feel really disheartened, and even distressed, by this whole development because one of the hallmarks of a tyrannical regime is to deny people access to justice,” Zimmermann told The Epoch Times.
“The vaccine is being used as an instrument to preclude members of the legal profession to represent the clients and therefore, what the government is doing is to create difficulties for people to have access to justice, ultimately speaking.”
It comes as Senior Constable Ben Falconer and other members of WA Police battle the state’s vaccination mandates in a landmark case that has so far seen all 25 officers keep their jobs until the final hearing in March.
The WA government has required vaccination, including booster doses, for 75 percent of the state’s workforce—equivalent to over a million workers.
But the exclusion of unvaccinated Australians from the jury could work against court cases that challenge the vaccination mandates.
Zimmermann fears that some parties may now also be restricted in their access to basic legal services, particularly those who are fighting against the government’s vaccination mandates.
“It’s clearly undermining the legal profession in the process because there are some good lawyers who are not entirely compliant with the system, and they are actually more concerned about the preservation of individual rights,” Zimmermann said.
“You already have clients with their own legal counsel, and these lawyers might now not be able to properly represent these clients.”
“So you’re going to have lawyers now that are going to find it very difficult to be able to continue to exercise their role as legal practitioners.”
The Epoch Times reached out to the WA Department of Health for comment but did not receive a reply in time for publication.
