- Published:
- Tuesday 20 June 2023 at 12:16 pm
Our Legal Help phoneline and Legal Help Chat services play an integral role in helping the public, increasing access to justice and preventing the escalation of legal problems by answering legal questions or connecting clients with other organisations that can help.
Legal Help Program Manager Rob Catania is proud of the assistance his team offers to the public, and is constantly looking to improve our service.
‘We recently adopted Genesys, a cloud-based contact centre technology platform to support our telephone, webchat, email referrals, quality audit and workforce management functions.
‘This removes the need to move between multiple systems when we assist clients and allows our staff to focus on providing our clients with the help that they need,’ said Rob.
Additional benefits of the Genesys system include:
- notifying our callers of their place in the queue and providing them with average wait times
- pre-programmed messaging that allows callers to listen to our privacy and legal obligations
- enabling clients to move between webchat and phone services without needing to make a separate call that places them at the end of a phone queue
- providing information about call volumes which informs our ability to adjust staff rosters.
Our Legal Help Chat Service averages more than 800 chats per week.
Webchat Services Team Manager, Alex Babic says the online service complements our phone line service well, and is a strong partner.
‘With average wait times of 44 seconds and 95 per cent of chats answered, our online service provides a great alternative to our phone line, and is ideal for time poor callers,’ said Alex.
An insight into the work of our webchat staff
Legal Help Lawyer Dr Ruchita is a valuable member of our Legal Help Chat team and enjoys assisting our clients with their enquiries.
‘We offer assistance on a wide variety of issues including criminal law and family law, as well as tenancy and child protection matters.
‘It’s also our job to ask a number of questions to determine the right referral pathways for the client, so initially we interview the caller to learn more about their matter and whether they qualify for legal aid,’ said Dr Ruchita.
Mondays are a hectic day for Dr Ruchita and her colleagues.
‘Mondays are a peak time for our Legal Help and Legal Help Chat services as many court hearings happen on this day, and naturally people call our service with follow up questions.
‘Similarly, many incidents occur on a weekend and callers look to us for guidance and information on a Monday.
‘Post public holidays are also high intensity periods for us.’
As with many of our enquiries, Dr Ruchita says they range in duration and complexity.
‘Some enquiries can be resolved in a couple of minutes while others can go up to 25 minutes, depending on the complexity of the issue.
‘We are often dealing with people with differing writing and communication skills, and if we require an interpreter this can easily add to the chat time,’ she said.
Behind the headset
Legal Help Senior Lawyer Karla Randle works on our Legal Help phoneline, which is one of the main entry points people can access legal aid.
To help move our callers through the queue and triage our clients, she asks a number of background questions to see whether they will be eligible for our help, including whether they are receiving Centrelink payments, their income, the nature of the charge and when their case will be heard.
While she enjoys the work, Karla says a lot of her day is about managing expectations.
‘People think Victoria Legal Aid is a massive community law firm that can help everyone with everything when it comes to legal problems, but there are limits to what we can and cannot offer.
‘Many callers also think we have endless resources, but this is obviously not the case, and ultimately my job is about helping the caller if we can; and if we can’t, providing them with alternatives and referral options.’
A challenging yet rewarding role
Pressed on what she enjoys about the role, Karla doesn’t hesitate.
‘I really enjoy the variety of the role and how it helps me expand my skillset in the many jurisdictions in which we operate, including criminal law, civil law, family law, tenancy law, mental health, child protection, equal opportunity and discrimination.
‘To paraphrase Forrest Gump, working on the Legal Help phoneline is like a box of chocolates, you ever know what you’re gonna get!’
As for the challenges of working on our Legal Help Phone Line, Karla believes they are consistent with those that are found in many large call centres.
‘We are always trying to move a high volume of calls through the queue as quickly and efficiently as possible, while trying to clear the call waiting backlog.
‘However, unlike most call centres, we’re also dealing with people with heightened emotions due to threat of imprisonment, loss of access to children and division of money and property.’
Despite the challenges, Karla wouldn’t have it any other way.
‘The job can be intense, and you have to methodically work through everybody’s life problems in 15 minutes, but that’s also part of the attraction, and why I love it.
‘In a way, we’re like an emergency department trying to triage people’s legal problems, and sometimes it feels like Grey’s Anatomy for lawyers.’
Our Legal Help service operates 15 general and specialist helplines including the Prisoner Legal Helpline, Victims Legal Service Helpline, Family Advocacy and Support Services Helpline, Disaster Legal Help Victoria Helpline and Lotjpa Independent Legal Service Helpline, and we also provide information services in 29 languages (including English) through our bilingual staff.
Our Legal Help phone line and Legal Help Chat are open Monday to Friday, 8 am to 6 pm.
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