Policy Bulletin 2025/12: Civil law policies

3 November 2025

The Legal Aid NSW Board has approved some changes to the civil law policies.

Background

As part of building a new grants management system, Legal Aid NSW is making changes to the eligibility policies for civil law matters. The changes are intended to complement the new system, by streamlining the application process for legal aid, improving usability and reducing the administrative burden for lawyers and clients.

As part of the suite of changes, the Board has approved:

• Removing redundant civil law guidelines – these are guidelines that are no longer relevant to how civil law policies are applied
• Expanding the list of civil matters for which legal aid is not available – making it clear that legal aid is not available for certain types of matters
• Introducing Minor amendments to the Means Test – for children in civil law matters and appeals under the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Act, and
• Updating the civil Extended Legal Assistance (ELA) and Early Resolution Assistance (ERA) eligibility policies.

Children applying for legal aid in civil law matters, who are in the care of the Minister, will be treated as a single household type for the purpose of the Means Test. Where an applicant appeals to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal against a decision by a magistrate under the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Act, the Means Test will not apply. 

Start date

The changes apply to applications determined on and after 3 November 2025.

Contact 

The Client Eligibility Unit at: T-CEU@legalaid.nsw.gov.au.