Law Week
NSW Law Week is a week dedicated to learning more about the law. It is held in May every year.
Law Week events help people to understand their rights, find answers to questions, know what help is available and learn how our legal system works.
Preparing for Law Week
Anyone visiting your library may need legal information - they may be having a problem with their rental home, be going through a divorce, have a traffic fine they can't pay or are trying to negotiate a new fence with their neighbours. Libraries can provide information about many everyday legal issues.
Libraries put on a variety of events for Law Week - from displays and legal talks to plays, mock trials, webinars, pop-up libraries and expos. Whatever event you're planning, Law Week is a great time to provide information about many everyday legal issues, and to let your community know that the library is a source of reliable and current legal information.
Register your event
Listing your event on the NSW Law Week website is a great way to help people find your event, and lets everyone know that libraries present a range of programs during Law Week.
Registration will open for Law Week 2025 next year.
Social media
One of the simplest ways to participate in Law Week is to promote legal information and services via social media. Find a legal information campaign you can use during Law Week or at any time of year.
Promotional material
Top up your Find Legal Answers promotional material in time for for Law Week using our online form.
Community legal education talks
Libraries arrange community legal education talks with a variety of speakers and organisations. Some suggestions are below, or find out more on the Community legal education page.
- ID Support NSW
ID Support NSW offers a variety of community programs for a wide range of audiences. Their presentations are designed to educate and inform NSW customers on:
- what to do if your proof of identity documents or credentials are ever stolen or fraudulently accessed
- how to mitigate the risks of online threats and scams
- how to spot a phishing attack
- how to enable safety protocols and features on your devices to safeguard your personal information.
You can request a talk using their Book a session form.
- Anti-Discrimination NSW
Anti-Discrimination NSW offers free online or in-person information sessions for community groups. The sessions cover how to recognise when unfair treatment may be against the law and when it's not and how to recognise, address and report discrimination.
- Community legal centres
Community legal centres (CLCs) give free and confidential legal help to people in need. There are 41 CLCs across NSW.
Many CLCs offer community legal education talks and are interested in working with libraries. Find your local CLC.
You can contact your local CLC directly, or contact us and we will approach them for you.
- Working with your speaker
If you have arranged a community legal education talk, remember to let the speaker know about the Find Legal Answers service. Show them the Tool Kit and point out any relevant resources. Ask the speaker to refer to the Tool Kit in their talk if they can. Also show the speaker any pamphlets you have ordered. Often lawyers have no idea of the plain language resources available in libraries, and it's a great opportunity to promote them.
Make sure you have a Tool Kit available for the participants to see and use. If it's possible, have the Find Legal Answers website on display. The participants will be able to see the wealth of legal information available in books and online.
Please contact us if you would like a copy of a short presentation you can use when hosting an event. The presentation briefly introduces the Tool Kit and the Find Legal Answers website.
Scams quiz
If you're hosting an event about scams, you can display one of the posters below. The posters have a QR code that links to a quiz dealing with different types of scams.
Ordering free pamphlets
If you are planning an event on a particular legal topic, there may be a useful free pamphlet or booklet you can order and give away to your audience. Multiple copies of pamphlets on a variety of legal topics can be ordered directly from the supplier. You should also highlight the relevant titles from the Tool Kit and Law Books for Libraries collections.
You can find relevant pamphlets on the Find Legal Answers collections page - this has some suggested pamphlets, as well as links to the publications pages of agencies including Legal Aid NSW. Many pamphlets can be ordered in community languages.
Tell us about your event
When the week is over, don't forget to report your event or activity.
Law Week event reports
- 2024
Congratulations to everyone for a wonderful Law Week 2024! Law Week is a great opportunity for libraries to highlight their Find Legal Answers service and to provide interesting and useful legal information to their community.
Forty-seven library events were registered on the Law Week website this year. Events registered included law talks by local solicitors, CLCs, or government agencies such as ID Support, as well as livestreams of the People in the Law webinar series. Highlights include:
Goulburn Mulwaree Library offered four days of free legal advice sessions for community members, provided by local solicitors and the Macarthur Legal Centre.
Cessnock City Library hosted Lawyers in the Library. Local solicitors were available for brief consultations about wills and estate planning.
Randwick City Library ran two in-person events at Lionel Bowen Library in Maroubra: Identity Theft with ID Support NSW and Financial Hardship with Legal Aid NSW.
Orange City Library hosted Scams and the Law, an information session on current scams and how to protect yourself from them, with Legal Aid NSW and a local police officer.
Waverley Library organised a school excursion to the library. A Legal Aid lawyer discussed criminal law and consent.
Hornsby Shire Library hosted two talks presented by local lawyer Cecilia Castle: Moving into a Retirement Village and Family Law.Macarthur Legal Centre did a talk about Family Law at Wollondilly Library.
A solicitor from Marrickville Legal Centre presented a talk about struggling with debt at Sutherland Library.
Blacktown City Libraries held four talks covering parenting issues, strata law, domestic violence, and planning ahead. These were presented by local solicitors and the Marrickville Legal Centre.Parkes Shire Library hosted a Scams and the Law talk with guests from Legal Aid and NSW Police. They also hosted two workshops about the legal resources available at the library and on the Find Legal Answers website, served with complimentary mocktails!
Cootamundra Library had a solicitor from the Seniors Rights Service to present Aged care and Nursing Homes: your Legal Rights.
Eurobodalla Libraries hosted planning ahead talks at Batemans Bay and Moruya.
Coonabarabran Library hosted a law talk on planning ahead.
Shellharbour Library presented talks by the Illawarra Legal Centre, Lake Illawarra Police, Legal Aid NSW Wollongong office and ID Support NSW at their Shellharbour, Warilla, Albion Park and Oak Flats branches. The topics presented were renting, traffic fines, driving and the law, domestic violence, and the ever popular wills, power of attorney and guardianship.
Willoughby Library hosted the talk Personal Privacy and Human Rights in the age of AI, presented by the Human Technology Institute, UTS.
Georges River Libraries presented talks on guardianship law at Kogarah and motor vehicle accidents at Hurstville.
Fairfield Library hosted a Legal Aid clinic at Cabramatta.
Campbelltown Library hosted a Let’s Talk Legal help desk with the Macarthur Legal Centre at their Eagle Vale branch.
Richmond Tweed Regional Library had a Service NSW drop in at Byron Bay and a presentation by the Seniors Rights Service at their regular seniors’ circle at Lismore.
Stanton Library held a strata law workshop and a drop in for help with the MyGov and Services NSW apps.Congratulations to everyone for a great Law Week 2024!
- 2023
It was wonderful to see so many libraries hosting community education talks by local solicitors and community legal centres. Many of you also hosted the Lunch and the Law series of webinars hosted by Legal Aid NSW.
In-person events proved the most popular choice this year - check out some of the highlights below.
Auburn Library hosted Social media and the law, a talk by the Western Sydney Community Legal Centre, as well as a drop in session with Service NSW about using the Service NSW savings finder.
Blacktown Library hosted four community legal education talks - Legal Aid NSW presented a talk on dealing with Centrelink and navigating the system, Marrickville Legal Centre presented a talk on strata law, and local legal firms presented talks on domestic violence and wills and power of attorney.
Wills, estates and planning ahead was a popular topic again this year with Hornsby Library, Goulburn Library and Griffith City Library all hosting talks on the subject by local solicitors. Willoughby Library had three talks about wills, power of attorney and enduring guardians in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. These were very successful, with a good turnout to all three sessions. There were very positive comments from the participants, including that they had a better understanding of the topics in their own languages. Eurobodalla Libraries hosted talks by the Shoalcoast Community Legal Centre at their Batemans Bay, Moruya and Narooma branches about wills and planning ahead.
Cootamundra Library hosted a sell out talk about seniors rights by the Seniors Rights Service in conjunction with their local U3A group.
Stanton Library hosted a talk about strata law.
Parkes Shire Library had an after-hours youth library 'lock-in' event, which featured a Q&A session with a local police officer.
Waverley Library hosted a talk on how to get legal help by the Inner City Legal Centre.
Social media campaign
A social media campaign was created for public libraries to use. Sample posts and images were provided that could be used on different social media channels. The posts highlighted content on the Find Legal Answers website and information from legal agencies.
Although this campaign was originally prepared for Law Week, you can use it to let your community know about the legal information available to them at any time of the year.
Law Week website
State Library staff continued to work with the Marrickville Legal Centre and Legal Aid NSW on the Law Week NSW website. Forty three library events were listed on the website this year - it was great to see so many events listed!
Keep in touch
Find out about Law Week program opportunities and news by signing up to the Find Legal Answers email list and the PLS enewsletter.