Policy Bulletin 2022/9 Family Fees: Funding for Drug Testing

21 Nov 2022

The Legal Aid NSW Board has limited the funding available for court-ordered drug tests in family law matters.

Background

In recent years, there has been an increase in court-ordered drug testing assessments for parties in family law parenting disputes. This increase is because reliable testing is now available, and it is an easy way to resolve allegations of drug use by either of the parties.

Up until now, Legal Aid NSW has met the cost of these assessments where the party is legally aided, despite not receiving specific funding from the Commonwealth. However, the significant increase in the number of court-ordered drug testing assessments has meant this is no longer financially viable and the Legal Aid NSW Board has decided to limit the situations in which funding for drug testing assessments will be considered.

  • What has changed?

    To mitigate the risk of causing unacceptable delays in proceedings that may hinge on the outcome of a drug test, Legal Aid NSW has introduced a policy to consider funding for court-ordered drug tests where:

    • the subject of the drug test order is a legally aided party in a parenting matter, and
    • the report will materially affect the outcome of the matter and is the only risk factor in consideration, and
    • the report is necessary to finalise the matter, and
    • where an Independent Children’s Lawyer is involved, they support the need for a one-off drug test.

    The policies on when Legal Aid NSW will fund an Independent Children’s Lawyer are published at Family Fee guideline 7 Drug Testing.

Commencement date

The changes apply to applications submitted on or after 21 November 2022.

Contact for further information

Email Client Eligibility Unit