ExpertsDirect Pro Bono Service

About ExpertsDirect Pro Bono Service

ExpertsDirect Pro Bono is a new service for pro bono lawyers and community lawyers. It aims to put them in touch with professionals who are willing to provide expert witness services for free or at low cost in legal cases assisting those experiencing disadvantage or marginalisation.

A joint project of the Australian Pro Bono Centre and ExpertsDirect, the new service gives qualifying applicants access to a vast array of expert witness services in fields as diverse as medicine, finance, and valuation, engineering, epidemiology and more. The project was developed as a way of overcoming the cost of these services which can impede the delivery of pro bono legal assistance or community legal assistance.

More information can be found in the attached ExpertsDirect Pro Bono Brochure.

How does it work?

ExpertsDirect is a Sydney-based company that refers legal practitioners to other professionals who offer expert witness services in legal proceedings, and maintains a database of these experts.

ExpertsDirect Pro Bono works via referrals from the Australian Pro Bono Centre to ExpertsDirect, which draws on its register of experts to provide appropriate services.

Please note that ExpertsDirect provides its service of matching lawyers with experts on a pro bono basis. Experts who provide their services through ExpertsDirect Pro Bono do so for free or at a reduced cost. When expert services are provided at a reduced cost, ExpertsDirect does not provide funding support to applicants for those services. If funding support is required, applicants should arrange this independently of the ExpertsDirect Pro Bono program.

How to apply

If you are providing pro bono legal assistance or community legal assistance and require free or low-cost expert witness services for that purpose, please fill in the application form here and email it to the Centre at info@probonocentre.org.au with the heading ‘ExpertsDirect Pro Bono’.

The Centre will endeavour to respond to applications within 48 hours and will refer qualifying applications to ExpertsDirect.