What are community legal centres?
Community legal centres are independent, community organisations providing equitable and accessible legal services.
Community Legal Centres are different from other legal service providers in a number of ways:
- they are independently operating, not-for-profit organisations
- they are community-based, focusing on the disadvantaged and those with special needs
- they encourage community involvement
- they are experts in identifying potential issues and formulating targeted responses to emerging community needs.
Community Legal Centres harness the energy and expertise of thousands of volunteers across the country. Community Legal Centres are committed to legal aid, the private legal profession and community partners to ensure the best outcomes for their clients and the system of justice in Australia.
Community Legal Centres can come in all shapes and sizes, with some being either specialist or generalist.
- Specialist centres offer expertise in certain areas of law (such as migration law) and provide legal assistance and advice for particular groups of people (such as seniors or homeless people).
- Generalist centres offer advice and assistance in most areas of law for people living in a particular region, city or suburb.
What legal issues can they help you with?
Community Legal Centres provide tailored and responsive solutions to clients’ needs by offering:
- advice and referral
- legal assistance and limited representation
- community legal education
- law and legal system reform activities.
The types or levels of service provided differ from centre to centre but may include initial advice, referral to private solicitors or other avenues of legal assistance, and help with the preparation of court documents and the provision of self-help material to assist people who need to represent themselves in court.
Some centres also offer social work assistance. Some represent clients, but due to limited resources there are usually very strict guidelines about casework assistance – public interest and potential systems change are taken into consideration.
Many Community Legal Centres also produce self-help kits and booklets, and undertake law and legal system reform.
How to find my nearest Community Legal Centre?
Find your closest community legal centre by searching by legal issue or location.