Justice Advocacy Service

The Justice Advocacy Service (JAS) supports adults and young people with a cognitive impairment who are in contact with the NSW criminal justice system – as victims, witnesses and suspects/defendants. The service supports clients to exercise their rights and fully participate in criminal justice processes.

The JAS is delivered by the Intellectual Disability Rights Service and is available across NSW, including in rural, regional and remote areas. The JAS team use an individual advocacy approach by arranging a support person to be with the victim, witness or suspect/defendant when they are in contact with the criminal justice system. 

A potential client does not need to provide evidence of a cognitive impairment to access the service. If police, court staff, legal representatives, correctional officers or other stakeholders believe the person may have a cognitive impairment, a referral can be made to the JAS.  

From July 2022 the JAS has expanded its functions to include a court-based diversion service in six NSW local courts (Downing Centre, Parramatta, Blacktown, Penrith, Gosford and Lismore local courts).

The court-based diversion service is available to defendants who:

• Appear at the Downing Centre, Parramatta, Blacktown, Penrith, Gosford or Lismore Local Court
• Have a cognitive impairment
• Are eligible for diversion under section 14 of the Mental Health and Cognitive Impairment Forensic Provisions Act 2020
• Voluntarily agree to participate in the service

The service will promote diversion orders under section 14 of the Mental Health and Cognitive Impairment Forensic Provisions Act 2020 for eligible defendants with a cognitive impairment.

To assist eligible defendants, a JAS Diversion Coordinator has been appointed at each local court, and their role is to:

• Support legal representatives to identify whether a defendant is eligible for a diversion order under section 14 of the Mental Health and Cognitive Impairment Forensic Provisions Act 2020
• Conduct preliminary screening to assess a defendant for cognitive impairment
• Engage with a defendant’s legal representative/s to understand the evidence needed to support diversion out of the criminal justice system
• Collect existing evidence to support a diagnosis of cognitive impairment, and where existing evidence is not available, broker a timely cognitive assessment from a trained clinician
• Assist a defendant to access to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and engage with other support services in the community

If you, or someone you know, could be supported by the JAS please call 1300 665 908. This service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

JAS can also be contacted by emailing [email protected] or completing an online referral form.

What is a cognitive impairment?

The Mental Health and Cognitive Impairment Forensic Provisions Act 2020 NSW provides a definition for cognitive impairment. Further, Section 14 of the Act enables a Magistrate to make an order to dismiss a charge or discharge eligible defendants with a cognitive impairment.

Under the Act cognitive impairment may arise from the following conditions but may also arise for other reasons:

• Intellectual disability
• Borderline intellectual functioning
• Dementia 
• An acquired brain injury
• Drug or alcohol related brain damage, including foetal alcohol spectrum disorder
• Autism spectrum disorder 

More information and resources can be found on the JAS website.

Evaluations of JAS

The following independent evaluations of JAS are publicly available at the links below:

• Qualitative Outcome Evaluation of the Justice Advocacy Service Diversion Program (Leanne Dowse, 2026) (PDF, 1.2 MB)

An Easy Read version of this report will be available on this page soon.

• Process and Emerging Outcome Evaluation of the Justice Advocacy Service (EY, 2023) (PDF, 1.6 MB)
• Process, Outcome and Economic Evaluation of the Justice Advocacy Service (EY et al., 2021) (PDF, 2.4 MB)

To request an accessible version of a report or if you have any questions about the JAS program, please contact [email protected].