Canberra Admin Law Firm Halves ART Appeal Preparation Time
A 5-lawyer Canberra administrative law practice uses Quillio to prepare appeals to the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART, formerly AAT). Across 80+ matters — spanning NDIS, Centrelink, and Part 5 migration review — the firm cut appeal preparation time by 55% while improving the quality of the s37 agency documents analysis.
What they were trying to solve
Commonwealth agency decision-making under the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act (now the Administrative Review Tribunal Act 2024) generates dense s37 document bundles — often 300-800 pages per matter. The firm's lawyers were spending entire days indexing and cross-referencing these bundles before they could draft the statement of facts, issues and contentions.
Why Quillio
Quillio ingests the s37 bundle, produces a chronological index, flags the legal issues against the relevant legislation (NDIS Act 2013, Social Security Act 1991, Migration Act 1958), and drafts the statement of facts, issues and contentions. The lawyer reviews the flags and refines the legal argument.
Implementation
The firm ran a 4-matter trial across NDIS, Centrelink, and migration appeals before rolling out. Each lawyer calibrated Quillio's output against their own prior work on similar matters.
Measurable outcomes
Average across NDIS, Centrelink, and Part 5 migration review matters
Chronological index with issue-by-issue cross-referencing
Capacity increased without additional hires
From receiving the s37 bundle to first-draft advice
"Our work is all about reading agency decisions and the evidence behind them. Quillio does the first pass of that reading — which lets me spend my time on where the decision went wrong, which is the part that actually matters."
How it works in practice
ART appeal preparation across NDIS, Centrelink, and migration review matters; s37 document bundle analysis; statement of facts, issues and contentions drafting.
What they avoided
Capping intake of NDIS and Centrelink matters that pay at grant rates, or hiring a paralegal that the pipeline could not reliably sustain.
Case study FAQs
Has Quillio been updated for the ART transition from the AAT?
Yes. Quillio is trained weekly on Commonwealth legislation including the Administrative Review Tribunal Act 2024, and the ART practice directions as they are published.
Does it cover migration Part 5 review specifically?
Yes — including protection visa, partner visa, and character cancellation review under the Migration Act 1958 and the Migration Regulations 1994.
What about Legal Aid grant work?
The firm does a significant portion of NDIS and migration work on Legal Aid grants. The time savings have made this work more financially viable at the fixed grant rate.
Is client data shared with the Commonwealth?
No. Quillio runs on Australian-hosted infrastructure with no connection to Commonwealth agency systems. Matter data stays in the firm's practice management system.
Does it help with procedural fairness arguments?
Yes — Quillio flags where the agency decision may have breached procedural fairness requirements and drafts the relevant contentions for the lawyer to refine.
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