Justice Project: Pro Bono Tool
Older Persons

This project has been endorsed by the Law Council of Australia.

More information about this project can be found here

Priorities identified in the Justice Project Final Report


Priorities Identified in the Justice Project Final Report[i]:

  1. Relax the legal aid means and assets tests and expand grants of aid in civil law matters to more appropriately meet the needs of older persons.
  2. Legal assistance services should be properly resourced to provide specialist advice and support for older persons, including tailored support for sub-groups of older persons, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, CALD groups, LGBTI+ and older women experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
  3. Specialist legal assistance services for older persons urgently need to be expanded in regional, rural and remote areas.
  4. Greater development and dissemination of curriculum, professional development and community legal education resources that focus on elder law issues, particularly elder abuse, with the aim of enhancing community understanding and expertise of elder law issues across the public and private profession. Community Legal Education should include strategies to empower older people to identify and prevent elder abuse.
  5. The Commonwealth Government should establish a well-coordinated, sufficiently resourced central referral service that older people can access to obtain basic information about their legal rights, where to obtain legal assistance and other support services, and available mechanisms to uphold their rights.
    • The services to which older people are being referred must similarly be adequately resourced to ensure that they can effectively respond to the anticipated increase in demand for services resulting from referrals.
  6. Governments should develop appropriate and tailored measures to support older persons’ effective participation in alternative dispute resolution proceedings, such as discrimination complaint proceedings, elder mediation and conciliation.
    • This should include robust safeguards to address significant power imbalances between parties and/or other barriers which inhibit older persons’ willingness or ability to participate in proceedings, such as a reluctance to self-advocate.

Justice Project: Pro Bono Tool Summaries

National

Australian Capital Territory (ACT)

New South Wales (NSW)

Pro bono providers are encouraged to contact the Pro Bono Referral Schemes and Organisations to source pro bono matters. In New South Wales,  please contact Justice Connect

Northern Territory (NT)

Queensland (QLD)

Pro bono providers are encouraged to contact the Pro Bono Referral Schemes and Organisations to source pro bono matters. In Queensland,  please contact LawRight

South Australia (SA)

Pro bono providers are encouraged to contact the Pro Bono Referral Schemes and Organisations to source pro bono matters. In South Australia,  please contact JusticeNet SA

Tasmania (TAS)

Victoria (VIC)

Pro bono providers are encouraged to contact the Pro Bono Referral Schemes and Organisations to source pro bono matters. In Victoria,  please contact Justice Connect

Western Australia (WA)

Pro bono providers are encouraged to contact the Pro Bono Referral Schemes and Organisations to source pro bono matters. In Western Australia,  please contact Law Access

[i] The Justice Project Final Report published by the Law Council of Australia (Aug 2018) can be found here.