LawAccess NSW is to join with Legal Aid NSW as the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) seeks to streamline its services.
The Department said the integration of the two organisations offered a unique opportunity to make it quicker and easier for people in NSW to access legal help.
“By streamlining telephone entry points and ensuring our services are complementary and our processes are consistent, we want to ensure that people get access to the right service, quickly,” DCJ said.
“Together, Legal Aid NSW and LawAccess NSW receive nearly one million calls annually from people seeking help with legal issues,” it said.
“However, analysis has shown that these calls reach us through more than 53 phone numbers, and many callers are bounced between services before they reach the help they need.”
The Department said the integration would reposition LawAccess NSW as the gateway for legal assistance for the public in NSW, providing information and triaging referrals to Legal Aid NSW, community legal centres, the Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) and other partners.
It said LawAccess NSW staff would now have access to key Legal Aid NSW systems, and staff from both organisations had refined triage and workflows.
It said the feedback received during the initial transition period would inform the continued rollout of the integration.
