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.
Law Week is being held from May 20-26 2024.
Register your event
Registration is now available on the NSW Law Week website. Listing your event is a great way to help people find your event, and lets everyone know that libraries present a range of programs during Law Week.
To register, you will need to provide a title and information about the event, a link or information about how to book, your council or library logo, and an image. You will also need to provide a contact name, phone number and email address - these are only so we can contact you if there is a problem and will not be published on the website.
If you have any problems registering your event, please email Catherine and I will add the event for you.
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.
Legal Aid NSW webinar series
Legal Aid NSW is presenting three webinars during Law Week, in a series called People in the Law:
- Get to know Legal Aid NSW - 21 May, 1-2.30 pm
- Ombudsman's Services - 22 May 2024, 1-2.30pm
- Meet a magistrate, barrister and solicitor - 23 May 2024, 1-2.30pm
Find more information and registration details on the NSW Law Week website.
The webinars will be presented via Zoom. Please feel free to promote these to your community, or to host a viewing event at your library.
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
- 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!
- 2022
Congratulations to everyone for a fantastic Law Week 2022! Law Week is a wonderful opportunity for libraries to highlight their Find Legal Answers service and to provide interesting and useful legal information to their community.
It was wonderful to see libraries continuing to welcome the community back to attend law talks in person. But of course there is still a place for online events and it was also good to see libraries offer online talks. Some libraries chose to move their Find Legal Answers Tool Kit to a new location, and many of you worked with Legal Aid and other legal service providers.
One library chose to use their Tech Savvy Seniors program to let the community know about legal information. And for the first time, library staff were interviewed as part of a Law Week podcast.
Check out some of the highlights below.
Library displays
Georges River Library created library displays at all their branches. These displays included giveaway showbags filled with legal material. The bags had QR codes on the label that linked to the library's legal links web page. Displays were also in CALD languages within their own sections in the library.
Waverley Library displayed legal material all over the library and included legal information in showbags for their HSC events and senior programs.
Ku-ring-gai Library at Gordon promoted the Tool Kit with a display for Law Week, including books, flyers and showbags with Legal Answers and Drug Info promotional material. They also displayed showbags and flyers in the Young Adult shelving. The showbags were popular (interestingly of the orange, yellow and blue bags - the blue bags were the most popular by far!).
Legal talks
Many libraries invited local solicitors and other organisations to talk on legal subjects of interest to the community.
Cumberland City Library Services hosted a number of talks at their Auburn, Granville and Merrylands branches. A Multicultural Legal Advice clinic was followed by a talk on Safe Relationships. The talks were held on site at the libraries and simultaneously available on Zoom. Supporting resources in community languages were also provided. This year's Law Week coincided with the comeback of the Multicultural Legal Advice service which will be available at Auburn Library every fortnight.
Campbelltown City Library partnered with the Macarthur Legal Centre to present a talk about making wills, enduring guardianship and power of attorney. Two weeks later, attendees could book a one-on-one will planning session with the Macarthur CLC lawyers to prepare these documents.
Shellharbour City Libraries hosted two talks run by the Illawarra Legal Centre on consumer law and debt, and legal issues for older people.
Stanton Library hosted a talk on strata dispute resolution with a local legal firm.
Shoalhaven Library partnered with the Shoalcoast Community Legal Centre to present talks at their Nowra and Ulladulla branches on planning ahead and scams.
Randwick City Library Service hosted local high school legal studies students to attend a youth workshop by Legal Aid NSW about police powers: young people and public spaces. The group of almost 50 from South Sydney High School and Matraville Sports High School were engaged and participated in the workshop by both answering and asking many questions, demonstrating a solid knowledge of and interest in laws and legal issues impacting young people as they move through public spaces.
Blacktown Library worked with organisations including the Marrickville Legal Centre to host three free law talks on wills and power of attorney, family law and strata law.
Legal Aid talks
We worked with Legal Aid NSW to present two community legal information talks in public libraries during Law Week:
- Navigating the system
- Dealing with NDIS service providers - what are my rights?
In-person talks were held at 30 public libraries, with other libraries hosting online talks.
For the first time, Legal Aid visited a mobile library - they visited the Mobile Library stop in Nimbin to present Navigating the System. The program was attended by four people in Nimbin. Although this was a small number of attendees, the event was considered a success, considering the recent flooding in the Lismore area. The attendees were extremely happy that the lawyer took the time to answer their questions.
Podcasts
Two library staff members were interviewed for the brand new Spotlight podcast series. Nicola from Randwick City Library and Michael from Richmond-Tweed Regional Library (Lismore) talked about their library service and why they participate in Law Week.
Tech Savvy Seniors for Law Week
Bayside Library Service ran a workshop on how to search the internet for free legal resources. Participants were shown how to access the Tool Kit online, how to find information on the Find Legal Answers website, and the information on Scamwatch. The workshop was very successful, and more sessions are planned for next year's Seniors Week or Law Week.
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
Stata Library staff continued to work with the Marrickville Legal Centre and Legal Aid NSW on the Law Week NSW website. The website listed events held during Law Week by libraries and legal service providers. We look forward to seeing even more library events listed on the website next year!
Congratulations to everyone for a great Law Week 2022!
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.