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BUDS at Maitland Local Court
The Back Up Duty Scheme is adding a new region! We are open to applicants who wish to express an interest in providing Back Up Duty Scheme services in criminal law matters at Maitland Local Court.
Please note practitioners who wish to apply must be situated in the Hunter Valley region and have the ability to provide a responsive service to the needs of Legal Aid NSW and its clients within the Maitland area. In order to satisfy this requirement, it would generally be expected that the principal place of business of the practitioner would be located within or in close proximity (within 45-60 mins) to Maitland Local Court.
In order to apply to the new Maitland BUDS, please follow the EOI process as listed below and list Maitland Local Court as one of your region preferences. Applications received before 16 March will be considered in the first intake of 2025.
The Back Up Duty Scheme (BUDS) operates at courts serviced by Legal Aid NSW to supplement in-house Legal Aid NSW solicitors in the provision of duty assistance and urgent casework. Private practitioners are appointed to the BUDS lists for regions and included courts through an expression of interest process coordinated by the Criminal Law Executive.
Practitioners allocated duty work as part of the BUDS appear for clients in first appearances, pleas of guilty, mentions, adjournments, section 32 applications and bail applications subject to Legal Aid NSW policy and guidelines.
Practitioners appointed to the BUDS are also eligible to be allocated urgent case work including defended hearings and other matters requiring expenditure. In some locations this includes District Court and Children's Court matters.
If you are interested in joining BUDS, please read through the Back Up Duty Scheme information package (PDF, 326 kb) and submit your expressions of interest to backupduty@legalaid.nsw.gov.au. Your application will be reviewed at the next meeting scheduled.
Please see below for the meeting dates scheduled for 2025:
- 25 March 2025
Applications close: 16 March 2025 - 27 May 2025
Applications close: 18 May 2025 - 29 July 2025
Applications close: 20 July 2025 - 23 September 2025
Applications close: 14 September 2025 - 25 November 2025
Applications close: 16 November 2025
These meeting dates are subject to slight variations based on the availability of committee members, in the event your application doesn’t make the application close date, it will be considered at the following meeting scheduled.
Please note if you are currently on a BUDS region list, you do not need to reapply via the EOI. If you would like to make a change to your BUDS membership such as changing regions, adding an additional region or deactivating your membership, please email backupduty@legalaid.nsw.gov.au with a short email outlining your request.
Please note that practitioners may be on a maximum of two BUDS regions. Please consult the BUDS regions document below for more information about which courts are serviced within each BUDS region.
For queries relating to the Back Up Duty Scheme please email backupduty@legalaid.nsw.gov.au.
For information about providing duty assistance at locations not serviced by in-house Legal Aid NSW solicitors, please email the Duty Solicitor Scheme Coordinator at dutyscheme@legalaid.nsw.gov.au, call (02) 9219 5122 or read more on the Duty solicitor scheme page.
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