The vast majority of solicitors who took part in exclusive research commissioned by the Law Society of NSW hope that many of the changes to legal practice and the justice system, brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, will remain a permanent part of their working lives.
When asked about their views on the impact of COVID-related changes on the integrity of the justice system, less than a quarter of respondents (22%), believed the changes have had a negative impact overall.
Almost 1500 NSW solicitors took part in the Law Society's online survey from mid July 2021 through to early August 2021 when the state was experiencing its second major lockdown.
Questioning centred on experiences of COVID-19-related changes from four perspectives: litigation work, advisory/transactional work, legal workplaces, and the justice system overall.
The findings have been published in a report, "A fair post-COVID justice system: canvassing member's views".
The research does confirm that changes adopted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling justice to be administered remotely, have presented challenges to legal practitioners, as they manage their practice, interact with colleagues, manage client relationships, and complete their day-to-day work.
However, very few are calling for an urgent reinstatement of the pre-COVID status.
Both the quantitative data and in-depth insights from the research found that solicitors appreciate the benefits that remote delivery of legal processes have brought to their legal practice and, on balance, feel that these outweigh the drawbacks.
President of the Law Society of NSW, Joanne van der Plaat, said the Law Society commissioned the research in an effort to gain more insight into how COVID-related changes have impacted the NSW solicitors and the extent to which they supported these changes remaining a permanent part of their working lives.
"COVID-related changes have required legal practitioners to change the way they practise law while navigating new realities in their work situation," Ms van der Plaat said. "As the voice for NSW solicitors, we thought it was important to consider the extent to which the changes spurred by COVID-19 should be temporary or should be retained - even when it is possible to revert to pre-COVID practices."
"The findings from this research will also shape our policy submissions and inform the conversations we will continue to have with the courts and government, on behalf of the profession, as we embark on a pathway out of the pandemic."
Some of the key findings include:
- The processes changed because of the COVID-19 pandemic were generally easy for respondents to adapt to, and even more so in the area of advisory/transactional work. The vast majority of changes were considered to have a positive impact, with respondents welcoming the opportunity to retain them so they could choose to use them in some circumstances.
- Across processes, particular benefits of the changes have included indisputable time efficiencies (for solicitors, clients, and other parties), cost savings and benefits for accessibility/flexibility due to minimisation or elimination of travel requirements (which is particularly advantageous for those living in regional areas or with mobility issues who have traditionally found it hard to meet and attend court) and access to justice.
- In litigation, the notable exception was remote cross-examination of witnesses (with 55% of respondents reporting it was difficult or very difficult to adapt to this change) and remote court hearings with an unrepresented party (41%).
- In advisory & transactional work, the difficult change to adapt to was participating in mediation or other alternative dispute resolution via audio visual link or voice only – 27% of respondents indicated the change had been difficult.
- The majority of respondents would like to see a permanent shift towards being able to make applications or lodge documents on behalf of a client via an online platform.
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