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^{Tuesday 31 October 2023}

Demand for Legal Services continues to grow as more than 155,000 legal services provided to the South Australian community

The Legal Services Commission’s Annual Report 2022-23 was tabled in Parliament today.

The report provides an overview of our services and other activity for the last financial year – outlining how Legal Services provides South Australians with accessible information, advice and representation services to meet their legal needs.

Highlights for 2022-23 included:

• Delivery of more than 155,000 legal assistance services – up from 146,000 in FY 2021-22
• Over 18,000 new grants of aid for legal representation approved, while work continued on 14,128 grants of aid previously approved
• The number of legal advice services delivered was over 75,000, while over 14,000 duty lawyer services were provided – all of which illustrate the significant reach of Legal Services in South Australia.

Legal Services Commission CEO Gabrielle Canny said the Annual Report highlighted the breadth of work carried out by Legal Services’ staff across South Australia, whose flexibility and determination have ensured Legal Services continues to provide high-quality legal assistance to all South Australians.

“I thank our hard-working staff for their commitment to our organisation and the South Australian community in this last financial year,” Ms Canny said.

“I also express my thanks to the 487 legal practitioners who acted on grants of aid. I look forward to our continuing collaboration in delivering justice services.

“The Annual Report sets out the scope and diversity of legal assistance services we provide in both Commonwealth and State areas of the law.

“This year, we were particularly proud to deliver a public awareness campaign to educate the South Australian community about coercive control, and to couple this campaign activity with a community legal education program.

“We launched a new Online Legal Services (OLS) Portal, to improve the way in which our clients and legal practitioners who deliver services on our behalf engage with Legal Services.

“Our amica platform – a national online family dispute resiolution tool for separating couples – continued to evolve, with the launch of amica^one, a new singled-side version of amica, designed for use by individuals.

“We launched our Aboriginal Engagement Strategy and action plan demonstrating Legal Services’ long and proud history of working with Aboriginal clients and stakeholders in all areas of our service delivery.

“During the year, Legal Services commenced a review of our regional and metropolitan services delivery to ensure we continue to deliver best practice services that support the needs of both metropolitan and regional clients. The review is looking at new options for the delivery of services to areas of the state where we do not currently have an office presence, and opportunities for alternative service delivery methods or expanded outreach to those areas.”

To read the 2022-23 Annual Report, visit: lsc.sa.gov.au.

Media contact: Simon Halliwell – 0421 611 856