Policy Bulletin 2020/9 Civil and Crime Extended Legal Assistance 

21 September 2020

The Legal Aid NSW Board approved expanding the number of matters covered by Extended Legal Assistance (ELA) in civil law and criminal law matters.

Background

In July 2018, the Legal Aid NSW Board approved the implementation of a new Service Type, Extended Legal Assistance (ELA). ELA is an extended legal service which includes taking carriage of a matter (or multiple matters) in an ongoing, representative capacity, but due to the nature of the matter/s it does not proceed to a court or tribunal, or the lawyer is not required to appear before a court or tribunal. Where minor assistance was previously provided as multiple discrete services to one individual client, these are now recorded and counted as a “representation service”. ELA is provided only on an inhouse basis. There are two ELA streams: one is for clients with complex needs and the other is for vulnerable clients who require assistance in core Legal Aid matters.

The Board has approved extending ELA for law types relating to sexual assault communications privilege and migration matters and expanding the assistance under veterans’ matters. We have extended ELA for clients with complex needs to clients of the High Risk Offender Unit.

  • What has changed?

    ELA is available for:

    1. Assistance with primary claims with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA)
    2. Visa matters at the Migration Review Tribunal and assistance with visa and citizenship matters at the Departmental of Human Affairs
    3. SACP where there are early requests by Police for sexual assault counselling notes
    4. High Risk Offenders who are determined to be clients with complex needs.
Where do I find the changes?

See at Policy Online:

  1. Civil ELA - Civil Core areas of legal aid work - 2. Veteran’s matters
  2. Civil ELA - Civil Core areas of legal aid work - 12. Migration matters
  3. Civil ELA - Civil Core areas of legal aid work - 13. Sexual Assault Communications Privilege matters
  4. Crime ELA - Crime clients with complex needs
Commencement date

The change applies to applications for legal aid determined on or after 21 September 2020.

Contact for further information

Email Client Eligibility Unit or phone 02 9219 5701.