Matter initiated by the Commission pursuant to section 5(1)(b) of the Victorian Law Reform Commission Act 2000 (Vic) on 4 March 2026.
Legal privilege—known as legal professional privilege at common law and client legal privilege in legislation—is a fundamental legal right that protects confidential communications between a client and their lawyer, when those communications are made for the dominant purpose of obtaining legal advice or preparing for litigation. In the interests of upholding the administration of justice, legal privilege exists to ensure clients can communicate freely with their lawyers, without fear of disclosure.
Legal assistance services are free legal services provided to people facing disadvantage, including through community legal centres, legal aid and pro-bono programs run by private lawyers and law firms. ‘Integrated legal assistance services’ refers to the provision of tailored social support together with free legal support, such as when nurses work with lawyers to holistically address the needs of suspected family violence victims in hospitals. This approach enhances access to justice by efficiently and effectively addressing the complex and interconnected needs of clients, and freeing up the legal assistance sector to support more clients over the long term.
However, the provision of integrated legal assistance services may also weaken a client’s ability to rely on legal privilege. This is because the participation of the non-lawyer may make it harder for the client to demonstrate that the communications were confidential and made for a dominant legal purpose. A failure to meet these requirements would leave the client’s information vulnerable to disclosure to an opposing party, prosecutor or investigative body.
Furthermore, if the communications are not privileged, the non-lawyer may be obliged to reveal the information provided by the client. A number of non-legal professionals are required by law to share and/or report information about family violence and child abuse. In addition, failing to tell the police about the sexual abuse of a child is a criminal offence, unless doing so would pose a risk to someone’s safety, or some other reasonable excuse applies.
Integrated legal assistance service providers have developed a variety of strategies to help staff and clients manage these complicated requirements. In accordance with the ‘choice and consent model’ adopted by some providers, clients are asked to choose between accepting integrated services but jeopardising legal privilege on the one hand, and forgoing integrated services but retaining legal privilege on the other. Arguably, this imposes an unjustifiable constraint on people already experiencing disadvantage, forcing them to choose comprehensive legal and social support or the preservation of their fundamental legal rights.
The Victorian Law Reform Commission will examine whether the law and practice relating to legal privilege and integrated legal assistance services should be changed. In conducting this review, the Commission will have regard to:
- legal privilege under common and statutory law
- the benefits of integrated legal assistance services to clients and the justice system
- the impact of integrated legal assistance services on legal privilege, and vice versa
- strategies used by integrated legal assistance service providers to balance the needs of clients
- legal developments in other common law jurisdictions
- the broad legal and ethical implications of reform in this area and
- any other matter relevant to the topic of inquiry.
Although the Commission may consider the commercial provision of integrated legal services in formulating its views, the Commission’s recommendations are to be confined to the relationship between legal privilege and the provision of integrated services in the legal assistance sector, consistent with the scope of this inquiry.
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