Sign up to our newsletter for fortnightly updates!
Despite a plethora of inquiries into family law over the past ten years, insufficient action has been taken to protect the safety of children, young people and adult survivors of family violence. With nearly 70% of cases in family courts involving allegations of family violence, the need for urgent action is greater than ever. In this article, Liz Snell from Women’s Legal Service NSW (who is also a member of Women’s Legal Services Australia’s Co-ordinating Committee) reflects on recent inquiries into the family law system and the Government’s proposed family court merger.
Article provided by Emily Phipps, Arts Law Centre
The North & North West Community Legal Service is currently working on opening a second office located in Moree NSW, which they aim to have operational from early January 2020. Article provided by Terri King and Sandy Watt, North & North West Community Legal Service.
Welcome to new CLCNSW Chairperson, Arlia Fleming.
The Northern Rivers CLC led a CLSD project where young people made films about legal issues relevant to them. Story provided by Katja McPherson, Solicitor, Northern Rivers CLC.
The opening plenary session of the November 2019 Quarterlies posed the question “Do we need to be different in 2022?” to get the sector’s thinking caps on well ahead of tendering for State and Commonwealth funding in 2022. Introduced and facilitated by outgoing Community Legal Centres NSW Chair Katrina Ironside, the plenary featured three compelling visions for the future of the community legal sector posed by three external allies of the sector: Professor Simon Rice, Director of Professional and Community Engagement at the University of Sydney, Anne Cregan, Partner at Gilbert + Tobin, and Geoff Mulherin, Director of the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW.
After many decades of advocacy, 2019 finally saw the NSW Parliament decriminalise abortion. Abortion will now be treated as a healthcare matter, not a crime. Human Rights Law Centre Legal Director Edwina MacDonald reflects on a campaign 50 years in the making, crossing generational and partisan lines.
In this article, Alastair Lawyer (Public Interest Advocacy Centre) sets out some of the key concerns with the draft Religious Discrimination Bill, arguing that instead of reducing discrimination, it encourages religious individuals and organisations to discriminate against others, including women, LGBTI people, single parents, people in de facto relationships, divorced people, and people with disability.
26-27 November 2019 | The Community Legal Centres NSW Quarterlies are two-day community legal centre sector network and training opportunities held in Sydney four times a year.
Mid North Coast Community Legal Centre is excited to have opened the doors to its second office, located in Coffs Harbour, with additional State funding. Coffs Harbour, Nambucca and Bellingen local government areas were identified by the Cameron Review in 2018 as a gap in community legal centre services.
The University of Newcastle Legal Centre recently launched the Older Persons’ Legal Clinic as a response to the many elder law issues that arise. The service offers free legal advice and assistance to people aged 60 years and over, to people of indigenous descent aged 50 years and over, their families and carers.
Submission to the CAG Family Violence Working Group consultation paper on Options for improving the family violence competency of legal practitioners
Inner City Legal Centre, Kingsford Legal Centre, Marrickville Legal Centre, and Redfern Legal Centre have together established a new statewide service to address the employment exploitation of migrant workers.
New South Wales has a strip-search problem. And now the evidence is in. Redfern Legal Centre has released a report, Rethinking Strip Searches by NSW Police. Commissioned by RLC and prepared by Dr Michael Grewcock and Dr Vicki Sentas from the University of UNSW Law School, it proposes modest but critical amendments to strip search laws.
Protest and community action have long been a part of community legal centre history and, indeed, without this form of advocacy, they would not exist. With the current climate crisis and the growing need for civil disobedience, the time for lawyers to build bridges with activists has never been more vital. Given its own foundations in protest, the community legal sector can make a valuable contribution.
How can Artificial Intelligence be used to improve access to justice? Marrickville Legal Centre is leading the charge on this technology to build a chatbot that will transform service delivery for community legal centres, thanks to a $250,000 investment from the NSW Government’s new Access to Justice Innovation Fund.
On Thursday 29 August 2019, Community Legal Centres NSW received correspondence from Legal Aid NSW that the government agency was cutting funding from the CLC Care Partners Program, effective from the end of October. This decision has the potential to leave families with complex needs without the help and support required to keep their kids safe at home.