Our 2023–24 performance highlights

Introduction

Our Strategic Plan 2023–28 is our road map for providing the best possible legal help to the people of NSW in the face of growing demand. Pursuing the priorities of our strategic plan led to some of our most exciting achievements in 2023–24.

Priority 1: our clients

Helping the state through natural disasters

The Disaster Response Legal Service (DRLS) continued providing statewide legal assistance to disaster-impacted communities in 2023–24 as a result of 12 months of funding from the NSW Public Purpose Fund.

The DRLS provided 1,412 legal services to 767 people across 56 local government areas. It delivered 130 community legal education sessions, and LawAccess NSW staff answered 410 calls on the DRLS 1800 helpline.

Clients had experienced bushfires in late 2023, had faced significant flooding in the Hawkesbury, Illawarra and South Coast in April 2024, or required continuing assistance as a result of 2022 floods in the Northern Rivers and Central West. The team continued to coordinate the statewide legal assistance sector response through the NSW Disaster Legal Assistance Group, collaborating with community legal centres in Western Sydney, the Illawarra and the Northern Rivers to provide on-the-ground services.

Law reform and disaster preparedness

Informed by casework, the DRLS made submissions to eight consultations and inquiries on systemic issues arising from disasters in 2023–24. A comprehensive submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics’ inquiry into insurers’ responses to the 2022 floods led to invitations to give evidence in Sydney, Lismore, Eugowra and Richmond.

The service also helped build disaster preparedness in NSW, with a media campaign on radio and television reaching up to 230,000 people. The campaign promoted the DRLS’s insurance check-up self-help tools to promote future disaster readiness.

LAFPA hits 900 referrals

The Legal Assistance for Families: Partnership Agreement (LAFPA) aims to reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care through early intervention and alternative dispute resolution. As part of the program, the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) refers families to Legal Aid NSW and the Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) Limited so lawyers can work alongside them proactively before children are removed.

In November 2023, LAFPA was rolled out across NSW, finalising a trial that had occurred at three sites between February and November 2023.

Since July 2023, we have seen an extraordinary increase in referrals – over 900 have been received in total, and we have been able to provide over 648 instances of advice, minor assistance, casework, duty service and grants of legal aid. This work has supported families to remain safely together, ensuring children and young people remain connected with family or are living with family, kin, or community.

Early intervention model supports the agreement’s success

To support LAFPA’s fourth objective, which gives precedence to alternative dispute resolution, the Family Dispute Resolution Service has implemented a legal-assisted mediation model to ensure family-led decision-making for vulnerable clients.

The process supports and empowers family members through legal representation, ensuring they are well-informed and actively involved in decision-making. Risks to children identified by DCJ are clearly articulated, facilitating open and transparent discussions and ensuring effective risk management.

Every matter mediated to date has resulted in positive outcomes for the families involved, and referrals are growing.

Respect at Work Legal Service

The Respect at Work Legal Service (RAWLS) expanded in 2023–24, providing 941 advice services to people who have experienced workplace sexual harassment or discrimination.

The team provides a statewide, trauma-informed service focused on supporting women, Aboriginal and culturally and linguistically diverse communities, people with a disability and young people. We provided 72 representation services, ensuring clients received over $430,000 in settlements and a variety of other positive outcomes.

This year, we launched a community legal education partnership with the Department of Education to deliver WorkReady, an employment rights education program for years 9–11 students entering the workforce. We delivered 52 sessions to thousands of students and school staff and distributed copies of ‘Get work ready’, a custom booklet for young people that explains workplace rights and where to access support services.

The RAWLS Team delivered 136 community legal education (CLE) sessions to 5,120 people, as well as over 117 informal community engagement activities.

Civil Law Blueprint implementation targets services to those most in need

In 2023–24, we implemented phase one of the Civil Law Blueprint, adjusting our approach to civil law advice, representation and internal ways of working. The changes we have made reflect the Civil Law Division's new purpose statement: to improve the lives of people experiencing deep and persistent disadvantage or dislocation by using civil law to meet their fundamental needs. New extended legal assistance and early resolution assistance policies were approved by the Legal Aid NSW Board in February 2024 following a successful trial in five regional offices. The policies focus the time of our lawyers on a more targeted group of clients and range of matters to ensure we can make the greatest impact for those who need us most – you can read more about the specific impacts of the policies in the Providing services to those who need them most section of this annual report.

We introduced early resolution assistance, a new service type to recognise the representation provided at the mediation or conciliation stage of certain civil law disputes, including employment disputes at the Fair Work Commission and discrimination disputes at the Australian Human Rights Commission.

The new policies were a key action under the Civil Law Blueprint, complementing earlier changes made to the triage of advice in May 2023. This allows our lawyers to focus on more time-intensive representation services, where they work with clients in an ongoing way to resolve their problems. We were able to grow our extended legal assistance services by 27.4 percent in 2023–24 while reducing advice sessions by just 11.4 percent.

To support the change, we provided comprehensive training for staff and introduced simplified file administration to support the change. We also expanded our allied professional workforce, uplifted professional development and improved internal communications.

Priority 2: our people

Future First Nations lawyers participate in a groundbreaking employment program

The Aboriginal Legal Career Pathways Program is a groundbreaking partnership between Legal Aid NSW, TAFE NSW, and Macquarie University, where participants complete a Certificate III and/or IV in Legal Services Administration and/or a Diploma in Paralegal Services at TAFE NSW while gaining work experience at Legal Aid NSW.

After completion of their TAFE NSW studies, participants can continue to a Juris Doctor degree at Macquarie University if they choose.

The program is designed to increase the number of Aboriginal people working in the law and address Aboriginal underrepresentation in the legal sector, with research suggesting that only 0.8 percent of solicitors in Australia identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.

Since the commencement of the program, six participants have completed a Certificate III in Legal Services Administration, 17 have completed a Certificate IV in Legal Services Administration, and 12 have completed a Diploma of Paralegal Services. A further 23 participants are currently completing their studies at TAFE NSW. Those participants who have completed their diploma studies will be able to apply to enrol in the Juris Doctor degree at Macquarie University Law School commencing in early 2025.

Transforming our hiring approach

We have updated recruitment processes, adopting a best-practice, forward-looking talent acquisition model. This model included recruiting talent acquisition business partners who focus on streamlining hiring processes and guidelines to attract excellent candidates.

New regional structure

In 2024, the executive units of our three practice areas – civil, criminal and family law – were expanded to include newly created associate director roles. The new associate directors are specialist lawyers in their area of practice.

These roles reflect the growth of our services since regional oversight was last considered and are an important way we make sure we are adequately supporting every regional and metropolitan office across NSW – and, by extension, supporting our clients.

The new associate directors support solicitors in charge at Legal Aid NSW offices with issues related to administration, local stakeholders, and practice administration.

Priority 3: our justice system

Fee-free birth certificate partnership expanded

We first launched our birth certificate project in 2022–23, delivering 700 free birth certificates in partnership with the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

This year, we expanded the program, making up to 1,000 free birth certificates available to people experiencing disadvantage, including those living in rural areas, domestic violence victim-survivors and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

An estimated 500,000 Australians do not have a birth certificate, which can make it difficult for them to get a driver licence, access essential services, or solve every day legal issues such as resolving debt or securing safe housing.

The free certificates were distributed by the Legal Aid NSW Civil Law Service for Aboriginal Communities, by Legal Aid NSW Aboriginal field officers and at Cooperative Legal Service Delivery (CLSD) regional events.

Increased legal services for refugees

In late 2023, the Commonwealth Government announced funding and reforms to speed up the processing of protection visa applications for asylum seekers, including an additional $48 million in funding over two years for legal assistance nationally.

Legal Aid NSW, the Refugee Advice and Casework Service (RACS) and the Immigration Advice and Rights Centre (IARC) shared this additional funding to provide advice and representation for asylum-seekers in NSW appealing protection visa decisions in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, its successor the Administrative Review Tribunal, and federal courts. This funding will enable an expansion of the Immigration Team and Refugee Service and support the delivery of more than 2,000 additional legal services to asylum-seekers dealing with complex appeals.

To support this work, we have embedded a human rights framework for migration matters in federal courts. The Board approved changes to the Civil Law Migration Policy to make legal aid available to clients appealing protection visa decisions in the AAT. This change includes appeals on character grounds and appeals of complex citizenship decisions involving refugees.

Community legal services receive Commonwealth funding

The RACS and IARC are both community legal centres supported by our Community Legal Centres (CLC) Program – more information about this program is available on page 76.

The two centres were allocated $9 million in funding in April and have been able to increase their support to clients appealing decisions about permanent protection visas made by the Department of Home Affairs and relevant tribunals.

Educating the profession on coercive control

Coercive control reforms made ‘abusive behaviour towards current or former intimate partners’ an offence from 1 July 2024. To assist professionals involved in the delivery of legal services, Legal Aid NSW developed resources on what coercive control is, the circumstances in which charges can be laid, how it may be prosecuted in court and how to best represent and defend a person charged with the offence.

We produced a podcast series, an eLearning course and in-person and recorded presentations, which were promoted to Legal Aid NSW staff, Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) Limited staff, private professionals and those in the community legal sector. We continue to monitor the introduction of the reform and provide feedback through the Coercive Control Statutory Monitoring Implementation and Evaluation Taskforce.

Priority 4: our processes

Launching new client service standards

In November 2023, we launched a set of new client service standards outlining what our clients can expect from Legal Aid NSW when they engage with us.

The standards were developed with input from both staff and clients, and they are applied to all public-facing roles. They affirm our commitment to delivering high-quality client services. The standards cover accessibility and cultural needs, timeliness of first contact and appointments, communication and referrals to other agencies.

The Our client service standards page outlines the standards in full and includes translations in community languages, a short video and frequently asked questions.

We developed a Client and Customer Service Skills eLearning module to help staff understand and apply the client service standards.

Launching our new client portal

In March 2024, we launched the first iteration of our client portal – a secure, accessibility-tested, web-based one-stop shop where clients with a grant of legal aid can access their case information online. Hundreds of clients are already using the portal.

In the portal, clients can see information about their in-house lawyer, case, upcoming court dates and appointments. They can also view and update their personal details and security settings.

The launch marks an important step toward our strategic goals of streamlining pathways for legal assistance and delivering high-quality services and is an important part of our organisation’s digital transformation. We plan to add new features to the portal in 2024–25 that allow clients to view and upload documents, access information about their grant of legal aid, book appointments, and communicate with staff. We also plan to make the portal available to clients working with one of our Legal Aid NSW-funded private lawyers.

The year ahead

• We will work closely with DCJ and the ALS and explore opportunities to collaborate, share our expertise and improve service delivery planning. We will continue to work with our partners to respond to all LAFPA referrals in a timely manner.
• We will implement phase two of the Civil Law Blueprint, establishing a statewide work allocation process to ensure equal access to representation and developing a protocol for support, communication and workflows between specialist and generalist teams so we can deliver consistent services while protecting staff wellbeing, and establishing a monitoring framework to track our progress.
• We will further develop our client portal to improve timely and up-to-date communication with our clients.
• We will begin the process of replacing our ageing legal aid application system with a new platform, making it easier for people to access our help.
• We will implement the Legal Aid NSW Disability Inclusion Action Plan and Cultural Competence and Diversity Framework, making real improvements to how we provide services by becoming more responsive to and inclusive of the diverse experiences of our clients.