NSW Legal Information and Referral Forum

Report to NLAF

LIRF met on 16 July 2014.

There were two guest speakers for the meeting: Suzie Forell, Principal Researcher, Law and Justice Foundation of NSW and Suzana Mihic, Team Leader, LawAssist, LawAccess.

Reshaping legal assistance services discussion paper: Suzie Forell, Principal Researcher, Law and Justice Foundation

Suzie spoke to the group about some work that the Foundation has done recently on the concept of early intervention in legal services. Concepts discussed included:

  • What is considered “early”?
  • For whom?
  • What type of interventions? Prevention services such as CLE, legal information and referral, and early intervention, such as advice, minor assistance and advocacy
  • What is realistic in the context of need and resources available?
  • Crises and transition points as times when interventions can be most effective (such as family breakdown, illness and disability, imprisonment and unemployment)
  • Client focused services which are targeted, joined-up, timely and appropriate to need and capability.

Suzie finished by referring to an LJF publication to be launched shortly, “Reshaping legal assistance services: building on the evidence base”.

New LawAssist videos for self-represented litigants (SRLs): Suzana Mihic, LawAssist Team Leader, LawAccess

Suzana spoke to the group about the development of the suite of LawAssist videos, which are a new resource to guide SRLs through basic Court matters.

The videos were developed to improve the knowledge, understanding and behaviour of SRLs in Court to assist in the conduct of their case and to improve the efficiency of the Court process. They are also a way of demonstratingthe skills that SRLs may need when attending Court, that they may not understand from reading a written resource on the website.

Other information provided by Suzana included:

  • The steps involved in the production process
  • Aspects of the project that worked well
  • Challenges and the lessons learned
  • How the videos are being promoted. This includes a trial at Burwood Local Court at which the Registrar will screen relevant videos for SRL’s identified during the call-over process.

The videos can be accessed on the LawAssist website here:

New work in legal information and referral

The various agencies attending provided information about newly produced legal information resources and initiatives for enhancing legal referral.

The next meeting of LIRF will take place in October 2014.

Jane Kenny

Grants and Legal Information Manager, Law and Justice Foundation

Convenor

Legal Information and Referral Forum