This Australian report presents findings from the first stage of a three-stage review of public legal education and information (PLE) activities conducted by Legal Aid NSW, and discusses strategic directions relevant to PLE practitioners more broadly. The first stage of the review involved a desktop audit of face to face PLE, the distribution of paper resources, and the use of the Legal Aid NSW website and online resources over a 12 month period. The review provides a framework for planning and evaluating PLE strategies, taking into account differing levels of legal capability and the barriers to accessing information faced by marginalized people. it also shows how different types of PLE resources and events help different types of audiences and, importantly, have different purposes.
The second stage of the review will involve developing a strategic framework for PLE activities, and the third stage of the review will evaluate the effectiveness of Legal Aid NSW's PLE activities.