Using South Australia as a case study, this article examines the role and the impact of the lawyer in the children's court. It suggests that the failure of English and American researchers to find a consistently significant role for the children's lawyer may be a function of the narrowness of their focus: on the formal court process rather than on the informal processes of justice that precede the court hearing. It concludes that in South Australia, lawyers are most influential when bargaining a plea on behalf of their clients. It is in this area of discretionary justice that the young defendant may experience both the best and the worst effects of legal representation.
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