Mr McClelland asked the Attorney-General, upon notice, on 15 October 2003:

(1) In which States and Territories have primary dispute resolution (PDR) services been established by Legal Aid Commissions.

(2) For each State and Territory, (a) what has been the cost of providing these services in each financial year they have been operating, and (b) what is the budgeted cost of providing these services in future years.

(3) For each State and Territory, how are these PDR services delivered.

(4) For each State and Territory and for each financial year these services have been operating, how many grants of legal aid have been given for PDR and what was the average size of each grant.

Mr Ruddock (Attorney-General) —The answer to the honourable member's question is as follows:

The Australian Government has provided additional Budget funding outside the Commonwealth legal aid agreements for the establishment and support of primary dispute resolution (PDR) services by legal aid commissions (LACs). $3m was allocated in the 1999-2000 Budget to increase the availability of PDR services through LACs. The Government allocated a further $4m in the 2002-03 Budget to be provided to legal aid commissions over 4 years as part of its `Keeping people out of courts' initiative. Some funding under the legal aid agreements may also be directed by LACs to PDR services.

The information contained in the answer has been provided by State and Territory LACs, as the specific information sought by the question is not provided by LACs under the reporting arrangements contained in the Commonwealth legal aid agreements. As a consequence there are variations between LACs in the level of detail provided in response to some parts of the question. The information provided relates to PDR services funded by LACs for family law matters. It does not include information on PDR type services which LACs may provide in relation to State or Territory law matters.

(1) The Commonwealth priorities and guidelines for legal assistance require that, except in inappropriate circumstances, LACs try PDR services to resolve family law disputes before making a grant of legal assistance for court proceedings. PDR services for the resolution of Commonwealth funded family law matters have been established, or are currently in the process of being established, by LACs in all States and Territories.

(2) (a) Expenditure information provided by LACs for PDR services is set out in the table below. The information does not cover all years for which LACs have been providing these services because LAC records of expenditure on family law matters have not always identified PDR costs separately. Only Legal Aid NSW was in a position to provide information on PDR expenditure prior to 2000-01.

NSW salaries, overheads, private practitioners' costs

Qld salaries, capital depreciation, overheads, private practitioners' costs

SA salaries, cost of PDR grants, administration costs

WA salaries, cost of PDR grants , capital costs, assignment costs, overhead costs

Tas salaries, cost of PDR grants , operating costs

ACT salaries, assignment costs, capital costs, overhead costs

NT salaries, cost of PDR grants, overhead costs, training

(2) (b) Budget information provided by LACs is shown below. Some legal aid commissions advised that they were unable to provide budget information for future years because they are still to be advised by the Commonwealth about future funding for PDR services.

(3) For each State and Territory the respective LACs advise that PDR services are delivered as follows:

New South Wales: The Commission's PDR model is classified as a conferencing model. It is based upon a combination of mediation, conciliation and evaluation, although the focus is on mediation. Applications for legal aid are considered for PDR in accordance with Commonwealth legal aid guidelines and Commission policy. The Commission has both in-house and external chairpersons and conferences are held throughout New South Wales.

The chairpersons notify the parties and their solicitors of the role of the chairperson in making recommendations on future legal aid funding in a report at the completion of the conference. These recommendations may be taken into consideration by the grants officer in reviewing an application by a party for legal aid to commence or continue court proceedings. A party has the right to appeal any decision on legal aid funding to the Legal Aid Review Committee.

The majority of services are provided at the early intervention stage, before court proceedings are instituted. Clients who are referred to conferencing are provided with a grant of legal aid. Clients can also be referred to litigation conferences at any stage in the court process.

The grant of aid covers 2 hours of preparation by the lawyers, up to 4 hours pro rata attendance at the conference and 1 hour for filing of consent orders. Applications deemed unsuitable for conferencing are assessed in accordance with means, merit test and Commonwealth Guidelines and Priorities. If applicants are eligible, aid will then be granted for court proceedings.

The Commission has also established the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Family Mediation service (ATSIFAM), a special dispute resolution scheme for Indigenous Australians. The Indigenous project aims to develop a mediation process especially tailored to meet the cultural and other needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The ATSIFAM project is currently operating in South West Sydney and Dubbo.

Victoria: Before deciding to establish its own PDR service Victoria Legal Aid referred legal aid clients with family law disputes to PDR services provided by organisations such as the Family Court and Commonwealth funded PDR providers.

In 2002, Victoria Legal Aid's Board decided to establish an in-house family law conferencing program for legally assisted clients called Roundtable Dispute Management. In addition to its main conferencing program, the service will also offer a small component of short-term conciliation counselling to clients of the program.

The family law conference will form the core of the Roundtable Dispute Management program. The conference will be attended by the parties, their respective lawyers, a legal representative for the child (if one is allocated) and a family law conference chairperson. The conference will generally be a one-off session of up to four hours.

The aim of the family law conference is to:

provide a non-adversarial forum for parties in dispute to discuss and resolve a family law dispute

formalise agreements into consent orders, if appropriate

enable parties to have a better understanding, or narrow the issues in dispute, where a complete agreement has not been possible

ensure that discussions regarding parenting matters are focussed on the best interests of the child

ensure that agreements reached in a family law conference are fair, durable and child focussed

equip parties with the strategies that will minimise future conflicts and prevent matters inappropriately re-entering the legal system

minimise the need for further grants of legal assistance.

Queensland: Legal Aid Queensland operates an in-house conferencing program for legal aid clients with family law disputes. The purpose is to facilitate the resolution of the parties' family law issues by providing a forum where people in dispute can talk to each other in a supported environment and thereby have the opportunity to resolve their problems themselves. The focus is on early intervention conferences prior to the initiation of Family Court proceedings. The aims of the conferencing program are to assist the parties reach an early resolution of their dispute and, if a resolution is not achieved, to assist in the assessment of whether either or both of the parties should be funded for court.

Legal Aid Queensland also operates a property arbitration program. This program is designed to assist married parties who have separated and have property law issues to attend to the division of their matrimonial property and financial resources. There are 3 methods by which a matter may enter the property arbitration program:

direct application - clients may apply for funding for property arbitration or property settlement generally

family law conference referral - clients may be referred for property arbitration where they have participated in a family law conference in relation to child matters and property settlement has been identified as an unresolved issue, and

court ordered arbitration - the Court has the power to refer parties, who have property settlement proceedings before the Court, to the property arbitration program by consent.

SouthAustralia: During 2000-01 and 2001-02 the Legal Services Commission of South Australia provided a range of options to enable parties to have access, at all stages of a family law dispute, to a process which offers alternative resolution methods. The Commission provided a 3 stage PDR model: Stage 1 - prior to the institution of proceedings (a counsellor or a lawyer to provide early intervention assistance); Stage 2 - after the institution of proceedings (a counsellor, or a lawyer, to chair a conciliation conference involving both parties); and Stage 3 - near the end of proceedings (a lawyer to chair a funding conference involving both parties and their lawyers).

The Commission has subsequently decided to change the format of its PDR program. Services in 2003-04 will be provided with a greater emphasis on a family law conferencing model, the major focus being conferences held at an early stage of the family law dispute. A PDR coordinator has been appointed to oversee the delivery of these services in the current financial year.

WesternAustralia: Legal Aid Western Australia operates a four tiered family law conference program (Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) 1 - 4): ADR1 - for very minor family law disputes; ADR2 - for contact disputes involving relatively simple issues; ADR3 - for more difficult contact issues, residence disputes and property matters (the greatest percentage of matters fall into this category and most involve child welfare issues); and ADR4 - a late intervention conference for serious family law disputes involving contact and/or residence and/or property issues that have failed to settle where there is ongoing litigation in the Family Court.

Tasmania: The Legal Aid Commission of Tasmania operates an in-house PDR conferencing program. The conferencing model utilised is mediation within a legal framework, with the outcome of the conference determining whether or not legal aid is continued. Most conferences are held at the beginning of the case, before proceedings have commenced in the Family Court, although they may also occur later in the case.

The aim of the program is to assist legally aided clients with their family law disputes at an early stage, before the issues become too entrenched to be resolved without litigation. The parties are granted aid to attend a conference with their solicitor. A Chair is appointed to conduct the conference and the parties are encouraged to participate and hopefully negotiate an agreement that both are happy with. This agreement is then incorporated into consent orders that are registered in the Family Court. The Chair provides a report to the Commission with recommendations as to future funding in the event that the matter does not settle.

ACT: The Legal Aid Office (ACT) operates an in-house PDR conferencing program. The conferences are intended to test the merits of a case for ongoing aid, manage parties' expectations and facilitate resolution. All conferences operated by the Office are shuttle conferences (where the parties are in separate rooms and the chairperson moves between them). The Legal Aid Office also plans to establish a property arbitration program which will be similar to that currently operated by Legal Aid Queensland.

Northern Territory: The Northern Territory Legal Aid Commission provides grants of aids to clients, seeking to resolve family law disputes, for solicitor negotiations and referral of matters assessed as appropriate for mediation to relevant community organisations. The Commission commenced an in-house conferencing program similar to that provided by the Legal Aid Commission of Tasmania in February 2004.

(4) The following information provided by legal aid commissions, where available, relates to the number of grants of legal aid which have been made for PDR and the average size of each grant.

New South Wales:

Victoria: Not applicable. Victoria Legal Aid did not operate an in-house PDR service in previous years.

Queensland: Information on PDR grants for early intervention conferences is available from 2000-01 as follows:

SouthAustralia: PDR services were provided by the Commission in previous years as one of the stages in a grant of legal aid under the Commonwealth's stage of matter guideline for family law matters. The table below identifies the PDR services provided under this arrangement:

WesternAustralia: The expenditure figures provided by the Commission are funds committed for PDR grants rather than actual expenditure. The Commission advises its experience has been that the commitment amount is consistent with actual expenditure.

Tasmania: Not available.

ACT: Not available.

Northern Territory: Not applicable. The Commission did not operate an in-house PDR service in previous years.