LawAccess NSW is a free government telephone service that provides legal information, advice and referrals for people who have a legal problem in NSW.
At LawAccess NSW we recognise that we are just one service within the NSW justice sector. LawAccess NSW aims to be a highly visible ‘first point of call’ for people with a legal problem.
Access to Justice research has highlighted that when faced with a legal problem most people do not know what to do and who to call and often leave dealing with the problem until it is much worse. LawAccess NSW working with other organisations within the justice sector and by participating in a number of collaborative groups is trying to increase the awareness of LawAccess NSW and the phone number 1300 888 529 as the starting point to dealing with a legal problem.
LawAccess NSW is joint initiative of:
What assistance can LawAccess provide?
LawAccess NSW can provide:
Legal Information
LawAccess NSW customer service officers can provide legal information over the telephone. To support our customer service officers we provide extensive training across most areas of law and provide the most up-to-date resources including: the LIAC toolkit, a referral database, a knowledge database - LawPrompt that is maintained by our Legal Officers and database of publicly available plain language legal resources: LawAccess Online.
Our customer service officers will provide up-to-date plain language legal information, as well as referrals to other assistance services.
For more information about the policies, procedures and standards of our customer service officers please read the LawAccess Policy, Procedure and Standards Manual (  404KB).
Referrals to Other Assistance Services
While LawAccess NSW can provide legal information and in some cases advice over the telephone, we also see the importance of referring a customer to other assistance services that may be able to assist further.
LawAccess NSW maintains a referral database of assistance services. Assistance services are organisations that accept referrals of LawAccess NSW customers.
Assistance services include:
- government organisations,
- community legal centres,
- court and tribunal registries,
- alternative dispute resolution services,
- not-for-profit organisations, and
- human services organisations.
Legal Advice
Subject to the capacity of the Legal Advice Group, legal advice is provided to priority customers in family, criminal and civil law where the matter can be dealt with over the telephone. The customer must be in NSW or have a NSW legal matter.
For more information about when LawAccess NSW provides legal advice please read our factsheet - Legal Advice Provided by LawAccess NSW .
LawAccess Online
LawAccess Online is a great starting point to search for information about the law and legal issues.
LawAccess Online was the first operational implementation of the Justice Sector Metadata standard. The standard is an initiative of the Department of Justice & Attorney General, in collaboration with a range of public, community and industry sector organisations including the Law and Justice Foundation, Law Society of NSW, Legal Aid NSW, Legal Information Access Centre (LIAC), NSW Fair Trading, NSW Industrial Relations and the Tenants Union. Find out more about the Justice Sector Metadata Standard.
LawAccess Online has been created to empower users to find information about their legal problem through a single search regardless of the source of the information. Unlike a traditional search engine LawAccess Online has content included that has been reviewed by LawAccess NSW.
To be included on LawAccess Online a resource must be up-to-date, written in simple, easy to read language and from a reputable organisation. If your resource is missing from LawAccess Online and you would like to see it included then please fill out our feedback form or contact LawAccess NSW on 1300 888 529.
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