Legal privilege and integrated legal assistance services: consultation paper and call for submissions
The Victorian Law Reform Commission is inviting community feedback on whether stronger protections are needed for client information when legal assistance services are delivered together with social services.
We have released a consultation paper on legal privilege and integrated legal assistance services and are calling for submissions by 3 August 2026.
The consultation paper considers two options for reform that would potentially enhance protection for client information—a privilege for social service professionals, and a new category of legal privilege that would include social service professionals.
Legal privilege is a fundamental legal right that allows people to keep their conversations with their lawyer private, without fear of disclosure. However, the law on legal privilege has not kept pace with the way legal services are delivered for people experiencing disadvantage.
Integrated legal assistance services combine free legal assistance with free social support, such as health care, housing assistance or specialised family violence advocacy, improving access to justice and life outcomes for the people they support.
But legal privilege can be put at risk when non-legal professionals—like nurses, social workers or financial counsellors—are involved in a client’s conversations with their lawyer.
This community law reform project was initiated in response to concerns about how legal privilege operates in integrated legal assistance settings. While integrated services enhance access to justice by addressing clients’ complex and interrelated needs, they may also compromise a client’s ability to rely on legal privilege.
While integrated legal assistance service providers have developed a variety of strategies to meet the needs of their clients, the legal framework within which they operate means that people may still have to choose between accessing fully integrated legal assistance services and keeping their legal information confidential through legal privilege.
In practice, this can have serious consequences. For example, a family violence victim survivor who accesses fully integrated wraparound legal and social support services may lose her right to legal privilege, potentially exposing her confidential legal information to her violent ex-partner.
This inquiry is examining:
• whether the law and practice on legal privilege and integrated legal assistance services should be changed
• whether reform could provide greater clarity about the different professional obligations involved in integrated legal assistance services.
We are seeking community input on how the law should protect people’s confidential information when they access integrated legal assistance services.
We invite you to share your views on the issues and questions set out in the consultation paper.
You can make a submission until 3 August 2026.
Find out how you can make a submission
 |