Legal Aid NSW increase practitioner fees

25/06/2007

Legal Aid NSW have increased private practitioner fees.� The fees increase recognises the valuable contribution of the private profession by moving towards consistency across the jurisdictions and maintaining Legal Aid NSW’s commitment to making legal aid more accessible to the community of NSW.

Effective 1 July 2007, the fees payable to private practitioners will increase to a base hourly rate of $150 per hour or an equivalent percentage increase applied to fees already above the base rate.

• The increase will apply to grant approvals made on or after 1 July 2007 for state crime and state family law cases and state and commonwealth duty matters.�

• For state civil law cases, the increase will apply to work done on or after 1 July 2007.

Note

• The state civil law ‘successful rate’ (The rate paid to state civil law practitioners who secure costs in a costs jurisdiction) will be maintained at the current rates.

• At this time, Legal Aid NSW does not have available funding to extend the increases and allowances to commonwealth matters, beyond duty matters.

Full details will be available on Legal Aid NSW’s web site at www.legalaid.nsw.gov.au from 1 July 2007.

Any enquiries may be directed to Lyndsay Brooker, Manager Legal Policy Branch on 02 9219 5859 or Lyndsay.brooker@legalaid.nsw.gov.au.