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Complaints handling

An open and efficient complaints process helps us improve our services and remain accountable to the people we serve.

In 2022–23, we received 104 frontline complaints. These included 37 complaints about wait times and customer service issues, one privacy-related complaint, 56 complaints about solicitor conduct (both in-house and private lawyers) and 10 other non-categorised complaints. These were handled locally and did not require a formal response or investigation.

We received 199 escalated complaints. These complaints required further investigation and often a further explanation or action.

We received 171 enquiries from third parties querying another person’s grant of aid.

We encourage all types of feedback – complaints, compliments and suggestions help us improve the quality of the services we provide and identify risks. This year, we received 96 compliments.

Key representatives from across Legal Aid NSW met quarterly this year to identify and discuss complaints and areas of service improvement. They identified the need to improve how we work with transgender young people, how we manage requests from clients to transfer to a different lawyer and how we prevent correspondence from being sent to clients who have died.

The group also worked to ensure staff have the skills and knowledge to receive and action complaints in line with our policy.

All new staff complete an induction, which includes training on feedback and complaints to improve their understanding of the complaint-handling processes. In addition, our complaints and client services officer works one-on-one with teams to support staff to better understand and respond to challenging client behaviour. We simplified our resources for managing unreasonable behaviour this year, providing additional support to help staff assist our clients safely and with compassion.

Our complaints policy has two performance targets for complaint response times: 

  • 15 business days, or
  • 30 business days for complaints about private lawyers.

Where we do not meet these response times for a complaint, we report this to the Legal Aid NSW Executive monthly. We consistently met our performance target and managed complaints within the 15-business day timeframe. For information on complaints about private lawyers, see private lawyers.

The year ahead

  • We will continue to improve client experiences by implementing new Client Service Standards. We will make ourselves more accountable by incorporating them into the complaint-handling process