How we handle personal information

What personal information does Legal Aid WA keep?

If Legal Aid WA has provided you with legal advice, assistance or representation (including grants of aid assigned to private practitioners), or you have applied for a grant of aid, your personal details and a summary of the services provided to you are kept in our client profile information system. This information is kept indefinitely. Client files and records of legal services provided to clients are kept for seven years from the date of finalisation. 

What does Legal Aid WA do with my personal information?

The Legal Aid Commission Act 1976 requires that where we have personal information about you, it must not generally be provided to anyone outside Legal Aid WA. There are exceptions to this.

Your personal information may be provided if:

• it is necessary to correct something you have said
• the Legal Practice Board is investigating the conduct of a lawyer that may have represented you
• there are proceedings against you for providing false or deceptive information to Legal Aid WA, or
• you have consented to your personal information being provided to a particular person or organisation.

For example, you might consent to the release of certain personal information where Legal Aid WA is assisting you in a legal matter where there are negotiations with another party and the provision of your personal information to the other party will help to achieve a good outcome.

Legal Aid WA may also release administrative information that relates to you, without having to obtain your permission. This could include whether or not you have a grant of aid, when the grant was made, and the lawyer that has been assigned your grant. We will generally not provide information about the purpose of the grant of aid, that is, what the grant of aid is for.