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The NSW Government's 2026-27 Budget has delivered a string of cost-of-living measures touching the legal profession and a substantial boost to domestic and family violence services, but the state's peak body for solicitors says the courts themselves have been overlooked in a record infrastructure program.

For the profession, the most immediate measures sit in the government’s cost-of-living package rather than in any headline investment in the justice system. The Budget will reduce or waive court fees where a person’s capacity to pay would otherwise limit their access to justice, and eligible pensioners will be able to have wills and powers of attorney prepared free of charge through NSW Trustee and Guardian. Volunteers (including students on professional placement) will no longer pay for Working with Children Checks or NDIS worker checks.

Property and tenancy practitioners will continue to work within the government’s expanding renter-protection regime, which includes the ban on no-grounds evictions, a limit of one rent increase a year and, from mid-2026, digitally transferable “Smart Rental Bonds.” First home buyers retain transfer duty exemptions on purchases up to $800,000 and a concessional rate up to $1 million, keeping conveyancing demand steady at the lower end of the market.

The Budget’s justice-adjacent commitment is a $184.1 million investment across six frontline domestic and family violence programs – a 50 per cent lift in core funding phased in over four years. NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, conceding the state “must do better,” pledged to “combat the scourge of family and domestic violence.” “People looking after people is a core service of government,” he said.

The largest share, $76.1 million, goes to the Safer Pathway program, which coordinates support for victim-survivors across the state. A further $54 million is directed to the Staying Home Leaving Violence program and the Integrated Domestic and Family Violence Services program, which help women and children remain safely in their homes and provide intensive case management for high-risk families. Men’s Behaviour Change programs receive $19.3 million, while $17.2 million funds Specialist Workers for Children and Young People delivering trauma-informed support to those escaping violence. The remaining $6.3 million supports longer-term reform through continued work on the Common Approach to Risk Assessment and Safety (CARAS).

That spending, however, has drawn a pointed response from the Law Society of NSW, which warned that without adequate investment the justice system risks being left behind as “a relic of the past.”

Law Society President Ronan MacSweeney described the Budget as a “lost opportunity” to fund a fit-for-purpose court system, with the courts allocated only a small share of the $116.7 billion in state infrastructure spending planned through to 2030. “Our members will be disappointed that the court system was allocated a meagre share,” he said, acknowledging the Budget had been handed down against a backdrop of global conflict, supply-chain disruption and an energy shock.

MacSweeney welcomed the previously announced upgrades to Sydney’s Downing Centre, additional resources for the Industrial Relations Commission and the Land and Environment Court, and new investment in the state’s integrity agencies. But he said courthouses outside the major centres urgently needed work, including safe rooms for victims of violent crime and more audio-visual link facilities for remote evidence. The headline domestic violence funding, he argued, needed to be matched by safe court facilities for the victim-survivors who depend on them.

He also flagged concern over legal assistance, saying recurrent funding for Legal Aid NSW appeared to have been cut by $23.8 million, or 3.6 per cent, on the previous year — at a time, he said, when vulnerable people increasingly need access to fair legal assistance.

The Law Society pointed to what it called inconsistent funding across the system, noting that the Budget allocated $3 million to modernise court technology, compared with $108.8 million provided to the NSW Police Force for new technology and upgrades.

“We understand the need for this level of investment in the police, but inconsistent funding across the justice system creates bottlenecks that manifest in court delays and overcrowding in custody,” MacSweeney said.

“Modern, well equipped courts system are central to ensuring the maintenance of public confidence in the justice system and the strengthening of the rule of law.”

He also noted the Budget was silent on the long-flagged South West Sydney Justice Precinct at Campbelltown, and observed that the Western Sydney budget statement provided for the construction or upgrading of 13 schools and five hospitals near the emerging Aerotropolis, with no mention of courts. On youth justice, he acknowledged funding to upgrade detention centres to meet rising custody demand but urged greater investment in early intervention and diversion to “address the underlying drivers of anti-social and criminal conduct of young people.”

MacSweeney welcomed new funding for First Nations people, including further Closing the Gap commitments, investment in housing in Aboriginal communities, and support for families at risk of having children placed in out-of-home care.

The Law Society said it would press these issues ahead of next year’s state election, having launched a related campaign at last week’s Regional Justice Summit in Orange. MacSweeney has written to Attorney General Michael Daley, calling for a publicly available, long-term strategic access-to-justice plan that covers both justice infrastructure and sustainable legal assistance funding.