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Problems with time management

As noted in Chapter 4, people with a mental illness may have problems turning up to appointments with legal service providers as a result of psychiatric medication, substance abuse and illness. During the legal process, service providers suggested that people with a mental illness may also have problems managing court appointments and adhering to strict timeframes.³¹ For example, they reported that people have problems turning up to court and have problems submitting documents necessary to particular legal processes on time:

Their lack of capacity to plan [is a problem]. Many times a magistrate will put them on bail, and then they will forget to show up to court, [which will] make the situation worse.³²

Some people cannot get up in the morning or start functioning till one or two in the afternoon, so how are they going to report at 9 am?³³

People often cannot comply with “this needs to be done in seven days”.³⁴

If people are unable to turn up to court on time, fill in application forms, or respond to timeframes, this may act as a barrier to their effective participation during legal processes. For example, when a person incurs a fine they must pay it within a certain period of time or elect to have the matter heard at court. If they do not do either of these things, a reminder notice is sent out. If the fine is still not paid, it is referred to the State Debt Recovery Office, at which point it is too late to dispute the fine.³⁵ CLC workers from Shopfront were of the opinion that not being able to comply with the time periods in which they have to pay a fine is a particular problem for young people with a mental illness.³⁶ This is also compounded by the fact that many of their clients are homeless, which means that in many instances, people do not receive further notification of their fines.³⁷