Sometimes, people need lawyers to help them as their dispute might be complex or the approach taken by ACC means your dispute is best dealt with by a lawyer.
Access to lawyers
Our advocacy assistance aims to assist people in resolving disputes. We are not acting as lawyers and we do not provide formal legal services or give legal advice. Nonetheless, we do recognise that this is important and there are times when formal legal advice is necessary, even before a case gets to court. This could include obtaining formal legal opinions or legal representation at review or appeal.
For this reason, later in 2024 we will be developing a pilot to refer clients to lawyers for legal services.
Independent Legal Opinions
At times, the reason that the parties are in a dispute is that they disagree about the meaning of the legislative text, or how the law applies in their situation and agreement cannot be reached through conciliation.
In these situations, an independent legal opinion on a question of law or how the law applies to the facts of the case will assist in resolving the dispute.
Access to Lawyers for Review and Court
We consider that access to an adjudicative review process, or to the courts, is an important requirement of access to justice. But at the same time, we consider that formal legal services may be required to best give effect to this. In some types of disputes we will recommend that you obtain legal advice after conciliation if your case is not resolved. We will talk to you about this after conciliation if your case is not resolved and we are unable to continue to represent you at review.
A pilot of a connection service to lawyers will occur in mid-2024. Once the trial has been evaluated, if successful, it will be more widely available later in 2024.