Bendigo’s legal community fears it will take a tragedy for the urgent need for modern law courts to be realised.

Practitioners welcomed the recommendation for new or extended law courts in Infrastructure Victoria’s draft 30-year infrastructure strategy.

However, those involved in family law stressed the dangers the region’s historic courts posed for clients and those working in the space.

Rob Southgate of the Loddon Campaspe Community Legal Centre suggested a maximum of five years would be a more suitable timeframe for the proposed works.

“There are immediate concerns that need to be addressed,” he said. 

Confrontation was a common theme in the legal community’s concerns about the existing facilities.

A lack of interview rooms means private conversations between lawyers and their clients are taking place where they can be overheard or intimidated by the opposing party.

“It can create quite a lot of apprehension,” Mr Southgate said. 

Family lawyer Tom Wolff, a member of the Bendigo Law Association committee, raised safety issues with the building having one entrance.

“We go down the ramp to get through and can’t see the other side,” he said.

“It can be intimidating for me as a practitioner, I can only imagine what it would be like to be there for an intervention.

“We had some improvements with the new court six building, but even there I think there’s the safety issue where there is only one bathroom in that precinct.”

He said the city’s law courts looked terrific from the street, “but they’re not fit for purpose for a modern court facility.”

“I think the question for Bendigo is to find a suitable location close to all the other services where a new court could potentially be located,” Mr Wolff said.

Association president Jennifer Digby echoed his sentiments, though she said there might be options other than a new court available.

She said members were delighted Infrastructure Victoria had included the law courts in its draft strategy.

“The Bendigo Law Association has been agitating for a very long time,” she said.

The final strategy is due to be delivered to state parliament by the year’s end, and the state government will have 12 months thereafter to release its five-year plan for infrastructure priorities.

Meanwhile, Ms Digby said security issues at the courts urgently needed to be addressed. 

She said three to four security officers were often stationed outside court six.

“Yet, when you got to the other court, there is no security whatsoever,” she said.