- Published:
- Thursday 26 September 2019 at 12:00 am
Our staff have joined with community legal centre lawyers, court staff, family violence workers and Victoria Police to begin designing a legal practice model for Victoria’s specialist family violence courts (SFVCs) that responds to feedback from clients.
‘SFVCs will offer a more therapeutic model of justice that promotes safety and accountability, while giving people intensive and integrated support,’ said Kimberley Ison, Acting Associate Director, Family Violence Response.
‘We are working collaboratively to ensure the legal services we’ll offer at the SFVCs will improve the experience of the whole justice system for people coming to court for a family violence matter.’
The first specialist courts will open in Shepparton and Ballarat in the next few months, with the Moorabbin, Frankston and Heidelberg courts scheduled to open in 2020.
Our Sector Engagement and Service Design team is supporting the development of the legal practice model.
The team has interviewed clients in the Shepparton and Moorabbin Courts, and their feedback was used to inform a joint workshop on Monday 23 September.
‘The key intent of the SFVCs is to respond better to the needs of clients, so the project team wanted to take a human-centred approach to the design of the legal practice model,’ said Marie Baird, Program Manager, Sector Engagement and Service Design.
‘This workshop placed client experience at the centre of the design process, and ensured we’re drawing on a broad range of perspectives and insights in developing the model.’
‘Many great ideas were generated that will help inform our future service delivery at SFVCs,’ said Kim.
‘A draft legal practice model will be tested with the same stakeholders at a second workshop next month.’
More information
Read more about our preparations for specialist family violence courts.
Read more about service design and our sector planning project.
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