Legislative compliance and fair processes

Legal Aid NSW has complied with our six-monthly reporting obligations under the Public Interest Disclosures Act 1994 (NSW).

There was one public interest disclosure made during this reporting period.

R v Rodden (Costs) [2022] NSWSC 1230

In R v Rodden (Costs) [2022] NSWSC 1230, Fagan J declined to grant a costs certificate under the Costs in Criminal Cases Act 1967 (NSW), where the acquitted applicant’s legal costs were funded by a grant of legal aid.

Fagan J construed “costs incurred in the proceedings” under section 4(1) of the Act as being limited to the “costs incurred by the person who has been acquitted”, and said that costs certificates issued to legally-aided clients under the Act “would merely lead to churning of funds between public accounts.”*

*In an appeal decision handed down outside the reporting period on 18 August 2023, the Court of Criminal Appeal held that an entirely legally aided applicant can be granted a costs certificate under the Costs in Criminal Cases Act. More details will be provided in our 2023–24 Annual Report. 

Legal Aid NSW manages personal information in accordance with its Privacy Management Plan. The plan was revised and updated during the reporting period and explains how we manage personal information under the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW) and the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW). We include privacy notices in our applications and other public documents and guide staff in dealing with privacy issues and queries. We received one application for internal review during the reporting period.

Legal Aid NSW adopts a proactive approach to releasing information where possible. We review our published information regularly and routinely upload information to our website that may be of interest to the general public. This includes updating a wide range of publications and resources for the public, including information about legal rights and responsibilities, policy documents and law reform submissions. Publications are also available in a variety of community languages.

During the 2022–23 reporting period we received 56 formal applications under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (NSW), also known as GIPA. Most of these were requests by individuals for their own personal information or applications made by legal representatives. The full details of these applications are set out in Appendix 7: Right to Information.