OVERVIEW

Profile
The Legal Aid Commission provides legal aid services in New South Wales. We are the largest legal aid agency in Australia.
The Legal Aid Commission is established under the Legal Aid Commission Act 1979of New South Wales and is an independent statutory authority.
Our goal is to assist socially and economically disadvantaged people to access the legal system.
One of the purposes of the legal system is to safeguard people's rights. The legal system can only perform this protective role if disadvantaged people have equitable access to it.
The justice system is not accessible to everybody. People with a disability, people from non-English speaking backgrounds, women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and people who are institutionalised may experience difficulties in the legal system. Legal Aid plays a special role in improving access to justice by providing a range of legal services to disadvantaged people, with special emphasis on these groups.
We work in partnership with private lawyers who represented nearly half of all legally aided people in case matters in NSW during 1999-2000.

Contents

Overview

Introduction (current page)

Highlights

Chairman's Report

Managing Director's Report

Commissioners

Corporate Plan

Clients

Customer service

Advice and casework

HelpLine

Education and publications

Social work

People

Employees

Senior staff

Organisation

Support services

Family, Criminal and General Law programs

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR)

Other programs

Partners

We are committed to working with other service providers to meet the needs of our clients

Financial Overview and Report (PDF - 208k )*

Appendices (PDF - 244k)*

Glossary


* To open these pdf documents you will need Acrobat Reader - a free software application which can be downloaded from www.adobe.com

About this report:
This is the twenty-first annual report of the Legal Aid Commission of New South Wales. It provides details of the Commission's activities, initiatives and achievements for the financial year ended 30 June 2000. One thousand copies of this comprehensive review are printed and provided to stakeholders. The report complies with s13(1) of the Legal Aid Commission Act 1979 and s10(1) of the Annual Reports (Statutory Bodies) Act 1984 and is used to provide readers with information about the Commission's performance and direction for the coming year.


Images on banner at top of page:
(from left to right)

Young people from Bankstown give Get Street Smart the thumbs up.

Lawyer Michael Halloway talks to a senior citizen about power of attorney during Law Week - May 2000.

Legal Aid lawyer Jacqueline Sutherland and Helen McGowan, Albury Wodonga Community Legal Service, conducting free divorce classes.

Vision

To provide our clients with high quality legal services through innovation, efficiency and equity.

Mission
To ensure our clients obtain solutions to their legal problems by the delivery of a range of quality legal services.

Values
Client focus, professionalism, integrity, value for money and quality.
Services
We give free legal advice and minor assistance at our head office in Sydney, 18 regional offices, five specialist services and advice clinics located in various metropolitan and country centres. In 1999-2000, we provided 45,756 advice and minor assistance services.
Easy access to information about legal aid and related services is available from the toll free Legal Aid HelpLine (1800 806 913). In 1999-2000 our HelpLine information officers assisted 39,612 callers.
HelpLine lawyers provided legal advice to 4,994 callers, 82% of whom were from rural and regional New South Wales.
If more than legal advice is needed, we may provide further help. We provide legal representation in many areas of law. For most services clients have to meet our means and merit tests. Also, they will usually have to pay some money towards the cost of their case. In some instances clients repay the full cost of their case when it is finished.
In 1999-2000 we provided 274,276 client services, which included representation, legal advice, legal HelpLine information, and special children's and youth services.
We also offer other important services which aim to avoid court disputes, such as alternative dispute resolution, community legal education programs and publications.
We have a strong customer focus and are continually improving the quality and efficiency of our services. We are committed to fair treatment and compliance with anti-discrimination legislation.