Victorian Civil & Administrative Tribunal
Australia's busiest tribunal.
Part of Court Services Victoria, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal resolves legal disputes and cases for people across Victoria. As the busiest tribunal in Australia, VCAT manages around 90,000 disputes each year and attracts more than 500,000 visitors to its website annually.
VCAT went to market seeking a digital partner to replace its ageing website platform with a modern Drupal solution. The goal was to create a clearer, easier and more accessible experience for the public, shifting the website towards a more transactional self service model that could reduce call volumes, minimise callbacks and help streamline key processes.
Five outcomes the new site had to deliver.
Self-service for users.
Greater self-service support, with clear expectations on processes, fees, time to hearing and requirements.
Easier application pathways.
Faster, clearer paths to apply, with consistent communication across the user journey.
Built for new jurisdictions.
A scalable system where functionality could be extended iteratively as new case types arrived.
Fewer inbound enquiries.
Reduce phone and email volume, process delays, and the errors that come from confusing applications.
Better discoverability.
Improved search engine visibility and accessibility for every user the tribunal serves.
An embedded delivery partner.
VCAT wanted a partner who could provide technology leadership and Agile delivery management embedded within their on-site product team. A unified team approach was the only way the brief was going to land.
That meant senior engineers and delivery leads sitting alongside VCAT's product team — making decisions together, sharing the backlog, and keeping velocity high through every release.
A self-service channel for the public.
The solution needed to support self service across every case type managed by VCAT. Users enter the dispute resolution process at different stages, each requiring clear guidance, relevant information and the ability to take action with confidence.
Today, the website delivers a large volume of content across a wide range of scenarios through a flexible and scalable architecture. Built on Drupal and hosted on our high availability AWS infrastructure, the platform is designed to grow alongside VCAT as new jurisdictions and services are introduced.
What changed for VCAT.
Service delivery.
Faster application pathways across all user types.
Consistent communication across the journey, end to end.
Editor empowerment.
A Drupal architecture that lets the VCAT web services team build and deploy customisable components and pages.
The team owns the platform, not the agency.
Streamlined services.
Inbound customer service calls, in-person enquiries, and court application errors all reduced.
The website does the work the phone used to do.
Koori support.
Dedicated videos and case studies for the Koori community, woven into the experience.
Cultural representation built into the platform.
Accessibility.
Improved accessibility for people with disability and low literacy.
Designed to work with voice and assistive technology from the start.
High availability.
Auto-scaling Drupal on a containerised AWS cluster.
Zero-downtime deploys for feature work and security updates.
Some great features are the new website's attractive, open and uncluttered appearance, use of plain English, clear guidance, and simple drop down windows. The help and support sections address many common questions and unusually provide easy to find contact information. The website will be welcomed by VCAT users and the Victorian community. Well done on an outstanding effort!
The outcome.
Embedded delivery partner needed?
Justice, government, complex case types, embedded with the in-house team.