Practice area
Victims of Crime Support & Compensation
Helping victims of crime and survivors of institutional abuse claim statutory support, financial assistance, recognition payments and redress.
Jurisdiction
Tasks
GreenLawyer reviewYellowClose supervisionRedLawyer-led
| Task | How AI is used | Human involvement | What the lawyer must review |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build the victims' claim eligibility and deadline register | From the client's documents and the lawyer's intake notes, record the scheme, the type of violence, the date, the client's age at the time, the police report details, the victim category the lawyer identifies and the time limit the lawyer computes, with the source for each entry. | YellowClose supervision | The lawyer decides the scheme, the victim category and the time limit under the scheme's rules, checks each date against a document, and diarises the deadline. |
| Index the police, medical and counselling records for a victims' application | Index the records the lawyer has obtained with the client's consent (police event reports, hospital and GP records, counselling letters) by date, author, type and page, without summarising their content. | GreenLawyer review | The lawyer checks the index, decides which records the scheme needs and which should not be disclosed, and checks any protection over counselling or sexual assault communications before anything is sent. |
| Build the expenses and income loss schedule for a financial assistance claim | From the receipts, invoices, payslips and employer letters the lawyer supplies, list each expense or loss with its date, amount, payee and the document proving it, and total each category the scheme uses. | GreenLawyer review | The lawyer decides which items the scheme covers, checks the totals, and confirms each item is linked to the violence. |
| Prepare the application to a state victims support scheme | Working with the lawyer from the register, the record index and the expenses schedule, complete the scheme's application fields for the client's details, the support sought and the documents attached. The tool writes nothing about what happened to the client. | YellowClose supervision | The lawyer confirms the scheme and category, checks every field against the documents, inserts the client's own account as the client gives it, and confirms the client approves the application. |
| Take the victim's own account of the violence and its impact | The tool writes nothing in the account or any statutory declaration. It may list the questions the scheme's form asks and the records the client refers to, in a strictly tabular, source-tagged list. | RedLawyer-led | The lawyer takes the account in the client's own words, in a trauma-informed way and only as far as the scheme requires, reads it back, and confirms it reflects the client's own experience before it is signed. |
| Respond to a scheme's request for further information | Working with the lawyer from the request and the file, draft the response item by item, attaching the documents requested and noting any item that cannot be provided and why. | YellowClose supervision | The lawyer checks each answer against the documents, decides what the client should provide and what to object to, and confirms the client approves the response. |
| Check a victims' scheme decision against the categories and limits | Working with the lawyer from the decision and the application, set out what was sought, what was granted or refused, the category applied and the reasons given, side by side. | YellowClose supervision | The lawyer decides whether the category, amount and any refusal are correct under the scheme, and whether to seek review. |
| Prepare a National Redress Scheme application with the survivor | The tool writes nothing about the abuse or its impact. It may list the application's questions, check eligibility facts the survivor has given (age, citizenship or residence, institution, any serious criminal conviction) against the scheme's published criteria, and index supporting documents. | RedLawyer-led | The lawyer confirms eligibility, takes the survivor's account in their own words, refers to Redress Support Services or knowmore where appropriate, and settles the application with the survivor. |
| Advise a survivor on a National Redress Scheme offer | From the offer letter, extract the components of the offer, any deadline and the institution named into a table. The tool does not write the advice. | RedLawyer-led | The lawyer advises on the offer, what accepting it means for any civil claim against the institution, the alternatives, the survivor's age and capacity to accept, and records the instructions. |
Firm-wide obligations
Checks that apply across files.
Trust accounting & handling client moneyCosts, billing & litigation fundingClient-facing & access-to-justice AI toolsIncoming evidence — deepfakes & synthetic documentsAI decision systemsConfidentiality & client informationAML/CTF — the practice as a reporting entity
Guidance for this area
| Topic | Guidance |
|---|---|
| How this work usually runs | A victims' claim usually starts when a client, often referred by police, a counsellor, a family violence service or a sexual assault service, asks what help is available. The lawyer first identifies the scheme: the State or Territory where the violence happened, or the National Redress Scheme for child sexual abuse in an institution. Then the category of victim (primary, secondary or related in the Victorian scheme, or a special primary victim in Queensland), the type of violence, the date and the client's age at the time, which together fix the time limit. The lawyer checks the reporting requirements, gathers identification, police reports or event numbers, medical and counselling records and receipts for expenses and lost income, and confirms the client's safety and consent before any record is requested. The application is lodged with the scheme, in Victoria through the Financial Assistance Scheme portal and in New South Wales through Victims Services, for counselling, financial assistance for expenses and loss, and a recognition payment in the category that fits the violence. The scheme's decision-maker, in Western Australia a legally qualified Assessor acting informally, may ask for further information before deciding. The lawyer reviews the decision against the scheme's categories and limits and seeks review where it is wrong. Redress claims follow a parallel path: the survivor applies, the scheme seeks information from the institution, and an offer is made that the survivor may accept only once 18 or over. Throughout, the client's account of what happened is taken carefully, in their own words, and only as often as the scheme actually requires. |
| Why victims' claims are their own area | Every State and Territory runs its own statutory scheme, such as the NSW Victims Support Scheme, the Victorian Financial Assistance Scheme that replaced VOCAT on 18 November 2024, Queensland's scheme under the Victims of Crime Assistance Act 2009 and Western Australia's criminal injuries compensation under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act 2003, alongside the National Redress Scheme. Legal aid, community legal centres and specialist firms run these claims every day. They are administrative claims, not litigation, and the AI questions are acute: the files hold accounts of violence and sexual abuse, often concerning children, and police, medical and counselling records. |
| Time limits depend on the crime and the victim's age | In New South Wales an adult must apply for financial assistance or a recognition payment within 10 years for domestic violence or sexual assault and within 2 years for other violence, a child victim of sexual assault may apply at any time, and counselling has no time limit. In Queensland an application is generally due within 3 years of the act of violence. Compute every limit from the scheme's own rules for the type of violence and the victim's age at the time, never from a general figure. |
| Check the reporting and evidence requirements first | Queensland requires the violence to be reported to police before an application, except for special primary victims, though for acts after 1 December 2009 no conviction is needed. Schemes ask for identification, police and medical evidence and proof of expenses. Find out what the scheme requires before the client is asked to retell anything. |
| The survivor's account is theirs and stays out of tools | A victim's description of what happened and its impact on them is their own evidence. It is taken by the lawyer in a trauma-informed way, in the client's words, and it is never drafted, smoothed or completed by a tool. Counselling notes and sexual assault communications may carry their own protections; check before any of them is copied, uploaded or attached. |
| Redress offers need advice before acceptance | The National Redress Scheme acknowledges institutional child sexual abuse. People under 18 can apply if they turn 18 by 30 June 2028 but can only accept an offer at 18 or over, and applicants with a serious criminal conviction go through a special assessment. Free help is available through Redress Support Services and knowmore. Advise on what accepting an offer means for any other claim against the institution before the survivor decides. |
Precedents for this area
- Form
Victims Support Scheme application (NSW): who can apply, the online application and what depends on the victim's situation
Link to the NSW Government's Victims Support Scheme page and online application, with a guide to who the scheme covers (violent crime, modern slavery and road crime), what varies by situation, and keeping the victim's account their own.
AI use Yellow - Form
Application for financial assistance (Victim Assist Queensland): who can apply and how to lodge
Link to the Queensland Government's page for applying to Victim Assist Queensland, with a guide to who can apply, the reporting requirement, online and PDF applications, and the victim's own account.
AI use Yellow - Checklist
Victims support eligibility and deadline register (NSW Victims Rights and Support Act 2013)
Register for each NSW victims support matter: victim category, act of violence date, the 2-year and 10-year application limits, the 5-year claim window, evidence requested and the 12-month lapse date, decisions and the 90-day internal review date.
AI use Yellow - Form
Financial Assistance Scheme application (Victoria): applying, nominating someone to help, and the support available
Link to Victoria's Financial Assistance Scheme help page, with a guide to nominating someone to apply on the victim's behalf, legal, language and cultural assistance, and the Marra Yattakunar pathway for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants.
AI use Yellow - Form
Criminal injuries compensation application (Western Australia): eCourts lodgment, the 3-year limit and supporting documents
Link to the WA Office of Criminal Injuries Compensation lodgment page, with a guide to lodging through the eCourts Portal (required for solicitors), no fee, the 3-year time limit and extension requests, and the documents to supply.
AI use Yellow - Form
Expenses and income loss schedule with records index for a victims support claim (NSW)
Schedule of each expense and period of lost earnings claimed as financial assistance under the NSW scheme, with the receipt or employer statement for each, and an index of the police, medical and counselling records that support the claim.
AI use Yellow - Letter
Letter responding to a victims support scheme’s request for further information (NSW)
Letter to the NSW victims support scheme answering a request for further information or evidence: lists each item requested, encloses what is provided, explains anything still to come with a date, and protects against the 12-month lapse rule.
AI use Yellow - Checklist
Internal review checklist for a NSW victims support decision (categories, amounts and reasons)
Checklist to test a NSW victims support decision and prepare an internal review application: the 90-day limit, written grounds, eligibility, category and amount of recognition payment or financial support, evidence and reasons, and the 42-day outcome period.
AI use Yellow - Letter
Letter of advice to a survivor on a National Redress Scheme offer (acceptance period, release and alternatives)
Letter advising a survivor on an offer under the National Redress Scheme: what the offer includes, the acceptance period of at least 6 months and extensions, that accepting releases the responsible institutions and officials but not the abuser, and the comparison with a civil claim.
AI use Red
All precedents for Victims of Crime Support & Compensation. Signed-in accounts can read the full text.