Legal Information and Referral Forum
Report to NLAF – May 2009
Domestic violence
The focus of the March Legal Information and Referral Forum meeting was on legal resources, pathways and services for victims of domestic violence. Louise Blazejowska outlined the issues that were identified in the Report on Legal Aid NSW services to people in domestic violence matters (Nov 2008). Alex Shehadie from the Violence Prevention Coordination Unit, NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet, briefed the forum on current department domestic and family violence initiatives including a discussion paper summarising the strengths and weaknesses of the current system (http://www.women.nsw.gov.au/discussion_paper.pdf).
A number of issues were raised during the presentations and in the discussion that followed. These include:
Services
- Aboriginal people
There are 20 Aboriginal Justice Groups set up by the NSW Attorney General’s Department to look at crime and offending problems in Aboriginal communities and to link communities with DV services. 8 of the 20 groups saw DV issues as a priority for their community justice plans. Consultations with these groups have identified that current mainstream DV services don’t meet the needs of Aboriginal communities who want to work with the men to get them to take more responsibility, rather than the women having to move away from them. However, they did identify a need for safe houses and housing for perpetrators.
Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention services are poorly resourced and have to cover large geographic distances e.g. one service based in Bathurst covers 1000 towns.
Aboriginal communities, particularly in remote areas, lack awareness of services.
The 2003 Senate inquiry into Legal Aid and Access to Justice (http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/legcon_ctte/legalaidjustice/report.pdf) recommended more research into women and DV in Aboriginal communities.
NSW Attorney General’s Department is carrying out a literature review of overseas DV programs with Indigenous people and their effectiveness.
DV has been identified as an issue in all 8 CLSD regions, in particular poor policing practices, inconsistent outcomes, lack of DV support services, lack of awareness of services.
- Confidentiality and privacy issues can prevent people from using DV services in RRR areas.
- The Consumer Credit Legal Centre finds that victims of DV often have associated financial problems including co-borrowing on a loan or mortgage, guaranteeing a loan or a shared tenancy agreement. Often they are still responsible for the loan even if they no longer have access to the goods. Sexually Transmitted Debt is a particular problem in CALD communities.
- Law and Justice Foundation receives a number of grant applicants for DV projects but it is sometimes difficult to know how the proposed services link with existing initiatives.
- There are not many programs to address perpetrator behaviour in NSW. There has been a lack of evaluation of this type of program.
- The Family Court reviewed its family violence policy in 2003 which resulted in the development of a new policy including training on DV for all staff. More information about the court’s Family Violence Strategy is on the web at http://www.familycourt.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/FCOA/home/about/FV/
- The Women’s Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Program is expanding from 65 to 107 local courts. There will be more Aboriginal and CALD workers, specific outreach offices and the trial of a tailored service for the children’s court.
- Legal Aid will do DV applications but private solicitors aren’t always aware of this
- The Law and Justice Foundation has funded the University of Sydney Faculty of Education and Social Work (Dr Lesley Laing) to research the experiences of women attempting to access protection from DV for themselves and their children through obtaining an ADVO.
- Services tend to provide support at the crisis level but research shows that 12 months after separation women are often both psychologically and financially worse off and therefore need longer-term support.
- There is little quality control and accountability for domestic violence services, especially for non-legal programs, which do not have training guidelines or standards for the job positions. This results in a lack of consistency. (See next section on training)
Training
A number of people raised the need for better training of staff at all levels working with clients of domestic violence. For example:
- Some community organisations providing DV services do not have staff with appropriate expertise or training. Education Centre Against Domestic Violence 4 day training or equivalent should be done by all staff working with DV clients.
- Court support workers aren’t always appropriately trained.
- While the police are improving the level of DV education there are still many gaps. Women’s Legal Services provides training for police regional coordinators.
- Local court magistrates do not receive consistent training in dealing with dv resulting in variable practices.
- The Law Society Guidelines for contact with the complainant in apprehended domestic violence and criminal matters (2000) http://www.lawsociety.com.au/uploads/filelibrary/1085968455734_0.34660236557561913.pdf are not always adhered to and may need updating.
- Cooperative Legal Service Delivery regions have found that it is sometimes difficult to get private solicitors to attend training on DV issues.
- There is a need for consistent training for services dealing with Aboriginal family violence. The NSW Attorney General’s Department Crime Prevention Unit is working with the Education Centre Against Domestic Violence to provide training to both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal DV service workers.
Community legal education and referral
- While there are a lot of domestic violence resources, there seems to be little coordination between agencies in the production of these. It is unclear how much work has been done looking at what women actually need in terms of information and at what points in the process they need it.
- Family violence provisions are not well known among CALD communities. It might be useful to distribute information on DV to newly arrived communities through the Department of Immigration.
- There is an increasing demand for community legal education on criminal law and domestic violence for men from emerging communities
- ALS and PIAC are running community legal education for men in Broken Hill on DV issues for perpetrators
- The NSW Attorney General’s Department Crime Prevention DV team have produced pocket AVO guides which explain AVO conditions in plain English, for both victims and perpetrators. They were produced in conjunction with the 20 Aboriginal Justice Groups set up under the Community Justice Plan to look at crime and offending problems in Aboriginal communities and to link communities with DV services.
- There is an assumption that the main pathway that victims of domestic violence use is the police, however, this assumption needs to be tested.
The Law and Justice Foundation has prepared a list of programs, training and resources on domestic violence which are available on the LIRF web site.
New general initiatives
Legal Aid NSW
National Pro Bono Resource Centre
- Consultations have been carried out for the retiring/career break lawyers pro bono services project. It is planned to release the report in June.
Community legal centres
- Consumer Credit Legal Centre has a new mortgage stress unit with a financial counsellor and a new solicitor (funded for 2 years). Issues covered include: refinancing, defence to the debt, problems paying mortgages, use of external dispute resolution schemes.
PILCH
- There has been a noticeable increase in financial stress issues, particularly predatory lending.
- Firms are happy to do pro bono printing and design work for community organisations. Contact Gina at PILCH for more information.
Supreme Court
- Debt and possession and applications for stays are huge issues. Consumer issues include the need for early intervention, referral and dispute resolution. There is a “possession users group” (which includes CCLC), which identifies better options for consumers but the issues are complex. Intervention needs to occur before matters reach the Supreme Court.
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