Annual Report 2020 - 2021
Collaborating with our partners
Partnerships and collaboration are essential to achieving our goal of delivering client-centred services and ensuring the most efficient use of resources.
Legal Aid NSW Community Legal Centre Program Unit (CLCPU) Project and Policy Officer Julia Cordina, CLCPU Senior Project Officer Lila Sullivan, NSW Attorney General Mark Speakman, CLCPU Manager Mia Zahra, CLCNSW Executive Director Tim Leach and CLCPU Senior Project and Policy Officer Jennifer Chen.
Key achievements
- We increased the fees paid to private lawyers who do legal aid work – the first increase since 2007.
- We established the Private Lawyer Quality Standards Unit to proactively monitor the quality of services provided by private lawyers funded to do legal aid work.
- We launched the Lawyer Education Series to support the professional development of private lawyers.
- We supported community legal centres to provide vital support during the COVID-19 pandemic and in response to disasters.
- For the first time, all 27 Women’s Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Services have an Aboriginal focus worker at their service.
The year ahead
- We will continue to implement and communicate a consistent approach to supporting the quality of services provided by private lawyers.
- We will continue to improve and embed our complaints handling processes for private lawyers.
- We will implement the next application process for community legal centre funding.
- We will progress the development of a tailored online client management system for Women’s Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Services.
Key challenge
- We will continue to work with our partners to provide them with timely, skilled and specialist support in an environment of increasing complexity due to COVID-19.