Access to justice a casualty in the closure of state's law library, Law Society of Tasmania president says
Tasmania's peak legal body believes the closure of the state's Law Library service would affect access to justice for many people in the state.
The Law Society of Tasmania said it was recently told the Department of Justice had decided to cut $295,000 from the library's budget from July 2015.
Law Society president Matthew Verney said that sum represents the library's entire staff budget.
"If we were talking about cuts to the ability to someone to go and get healthcare, we would all be up in arms," he said.
"Access to justice is every bit as important as access to healthcare, and this strikes straight to the heart of that."
The department signaled a desire to move the service to either the University of Tasmania or the State Library.
In a statement a Government spokesman said all departments and agencies were required to find budget savings.
"We have to find significant budget savings thanks to the appalling mess Labor and the Greens left the budget in," he said.
"There is an opportunity here to develop a truly integrated law library and we are currently consulting stakeholders about how this can be achieved."
But the Law Society said it had not been consulted before the department made the decision and nor had the university or the State Library.
Library's closure would put more pressure on Legal Aid service
Shadow attorney-general Lara Giddings said the Government had picked the worst time to cut back on justice services.
"It's concerning that the cuts to the Law Library is happening at the very same time as were seeing Legal Aid under increasing financial pressure," she said.
"More people are being turned away every day from Legal Aid and being forced to represent themselves at court and they can access information through this service."
Mr Verney said that the closure of the library would put more budget strain on a number of other departments.
"If this all goes, then the various government departments; the Department of Public Prosecution, or the Police or other departments that have the need for legal resources are all going to go back to having their little hotch potch [Law Library] sections," he said.
The Andrew Inglis Clark Law Library was established 13 years ago and has been used by both the private sector and the crown.
