People in Moree will have greater access to legal services at their doorstep with the official opening of a new Legal Aid NSW office to meet growing demand this week.
Legal Aid will provide legal advice and representation for clients with criminal law issues at Moree Local Court and Moree Children’s Court, as well as drop-in advice clinics. Solicitors from Legal Aid’s specialist Aboriginal family law and civil law units will be available for appointments at the office or nearby where it is needed.
Legal Aid NSW encourages people to contact the office with their legal concerns, particularly if they are struggling with family breakdown or issues with parenting or child support issues or problems with housing, fines, debt, employment, NDIS, Centrelink or criminal matters. People will be able to drop into the office shopfront to be connected to the right service and access a wide range of in-person and online services.
Legal Aid NSW has been providing telephone advice and outreach services to the region on a fly-in, fly-out basis but now clients can seek legal help from a dedicated team of local experts in a permanent ‘shopfront’ office.
Legal Aid NSW CEO Monique Hitter said opening an office in Moree was about meeting growing unmet legal need in the region, particularly for young people and families.
“This is so important for local communities, to have access to permanent and on-site legal services.”
“This is an area where there is significant unmet demand for legal services, which is why we are committed to ensuring Moree locals have the same access to high quality legal services as those in other towns and regions,” Ms Hitter said.
Legal Aid NSW has been steadily increasing services in the town and surrounding region and is keen for this to continue. In 2024-25, Legal Aid NSW provided 1,256 services to people in the Moree region, a 33 per cent increase over four years.
“We will complement the work of other support services in the region by focusing on unmet legal need,” Ms Hitter said.
We will collaborate closely with existing local services so that Legal Aid NSW is an option for the community when they have a legal problem.”
With more than 22 per cent of the Moree Plains population being Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, the office will provide a permanent base for Legal Aid NSW’s Civil Law Service for Aboriginal Communities and the Family Law Service for Aboriginal Communities, and they will be able to offer drop-in advice clinics for Aboriginal clients.
“We are committed to providing culturally-safe legal services to Aboriginal people and communities in the region. This is so important and this will be a key focus for our Aboriginal Field Officer,” Ms Hitter said.
The Moree Legal Aid team will initially consist of a Solicitor in Charge, an Office Manager, an Aboriginal Field Officer and a Crime Solicitor, who can also direct people to all the other legal services provided by Legal Aid NSW .
The office is located at Unit 3, 25 Auburn Street in Moree and can be contacted via LawAccess on 1300 888 529.
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