Good news for the NFP sector: Justice Connect Information Hub has expanded to offer information about all Australian states and territories. Services provided in New South Wales and Victoria proved so useful to NFPs that the expansion became the natural next step for the service. The Information Hub is an extensive resource including factsheets and access to webinars on a wide variety of topics. These include starting a new charity, merging and collaborating between existing charities, reporting to government, dispute resolution, and insurance, risk and tax.

As of late February, www.nfplaw.org.aucontains sections relevant to all jurisdictions in Australia, while maintaining the same free, reliable, easy to access information it has come to be known for. Simply selecting the state or territory you wish to find out about will give you an access portal to federal laws, as well as those for your region.

These new services are a boon to the NFP sector, which includes many organisations whose operations are vital to their communities, but have small revenue bases, and so minimal ability to secure professional legal services. Also, nationwide, close to 50% of all NFPs are situated in regional and rural communities, and so benefit greatly from the online availability of legal advice and information.

The importance of services that Justice Connect offers cannot be overestimated. Enabling equitable access to legal advice and pro bono representation has a great impact on easing social and economic disadvantage of many individuals and groups. According to their 2015 Impact Report in that year Justice Connect provided direct legal assistance to close to 500 NFP groups, and provided legal information to approximately 300. People who used Justice Connect services reported experiencing better legal outcomes as a result, and better, less stressful overall experience of the justice system. 

Furthering the reach of these services to all across the country will hopefully make the work of NFPs easier, as it will help provide faster, more accurate and affordable legal information where it is most needed. Removing barriers such as cost and distance to legal services nationwide will likely result in NFPs being able to deliver services to their communities in a more timely and effective manner.