Legal Aid NSW works with private lawyers, who receive funding from us to represent legally-aided clients in assigned matters. Private practitioners play a vital role in ensuring we can provide coverage across NSW in representing clients under grants of legal aid.

Private lawyers are appointed to Legal Aid NSW panels under the Legal Aid Commission Act 1979 (NSW). This year, private lawyers provided 69% per cent of all the casework services we provided as a result of grants of aid and 40% per cent of all duty lawyer services.

Total individual panels members

2018–2019: 2,184
2019–2020: 2,152
2020–2021: 1,521
2021–2022: 1,474
2022–2023: 1,715
Number of private lawyers on Legal Aid NSW panels 2022–23*
General Panels
General Civil Law Panel354
General Family Law Panel716
Summary Criminal Law Panel1,301
Specialist panels
Appellate Criminal Law Barrister Panel88
Care and Protection Panel158
Children’s Criminal Law Panel484
Complex Criminal Law Barrister Panel218
Domestic Violence Panel587
Independent Children’s Lawyer Panel136
Indictable Criminal Law Panel704
Indictable Criminal Law Barrister Panel409
Mental Health Advocacy Panel406

*Some lawyers are active members of more than one panel. Figures include current active panel members whose appointment start dates were before 30 June 2023.

The lawyers who sit on our panels

  • Solicitor: 1,253
  • Barrister: 462.

Where our private lawyers are located*

*Based on the panel member’s primary office location

  • Sydney Metropolitan area: 1,089
  • Reginal: 606
  • Interstate: 43.

Private lawyers provide approximately half of all Legal Aid NSW services, with some regional and remote areas of NSW serviced exclusively by private lawyers.

Working with private lawyers, making it easy for them to provide services to our clients, and ensuring clear and reasonable expectations are crucial to effective service delivery to Legal Aid NSW clients. We proactively monitor the quality of services our clients receive to ensure we are supporting private lawyers on our panels to provide excellent service.

In 2022–23, we reviewed the Legal Aid NSW Panel Service Agreement and Quality Standards and continued implementing our Private Lawyer Quality Framework. We undertook audits, investigated complaints and conducted visits to regional areas to obtain feedback and encourage stakeholder engagement.

On 1 July 2022, the base hourly rate for private lawyers supporting Legal Aid NSW clients in state matters increased from $170 to $180. Fees not based on the hourly rate increased by 5.9%. This increase was the third of four increases made possible by the allocation of $87.7 million by the NSW Government in November 2019.

Our Private Lawyer Quality Standards Unit conducts regional visits to speak with panel members, engage with stakeholders, gather feedback and identify areas where support and training can benefit panel members. In 2022–23, our team visited the Far South Coast and Hunter Valley regions.

In 2022–23, we performed quality audits on a total of 100 files from 31 private lawyers. We performed file reviews on 20 files across 8 law practices and 231 spot-check audits across 96 law practices.

We undertake audits to ensure compliance with the Legal Aid NSW Quality Standards. Where non-compliance issues are identified, we may take no action, offer support and/or training, or conduct follow-up audits. In cases of serious non-compliance, we may remove a law practice from panels.

Total audits completed in 2022–23
Quality audits19 law practices (74 files)
File reviews8 law practices (20 files)
Spot check audits96 law practices

Complaints are the main way we identify concerns about private lawyer performance. Since implementing our complaints handling process, the number of complaints received and investigated by our team has increased. We are committed to engaging with stakeholders to ensure they are aware of our complaints process.

Complaints received (calendar year)
201865
201962
202043
2021374
2022333
January to June 2023170

In 2022–23, a total of five law practices were removed from Legal Aid NSW panels due to breaches of the Legal Aid NSW Panel Service Agreement or our Quality Standards.

The year ahead

  • We will continue to engage with private lawyers and provide them with Continuing Professional Development-accredited training.
  • We will continue to engage with external and internal stakeholders to develop ways to gather feedback and monitor quality.
  • We will continue proactively monitoring of the services our private lawyers provide through audits and regional visits.
  • We will continue to investigate complaints in accordance with our Private Lawyer Quality Framework.

Key challenge

  • Ensuring our private lawyers on panels in regional areas receive the required level of engagement and training.