Justice Project: Pro Bono Tool
People who experience Economic Disadvantage
More information about this project can be found here. This project has been endorsed by the Law Council of Australia.
Priorities identified in the Justice Project Final Report
Priorities Identified in the Justice Project Final Report[i]:
- Commonwealth, state and territory governments should invest significant additional resources in Legal Aid Commissions, Community Legal Centres, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, and Family Violence Prevention Legal Services to address critical civil and criminal legal assistance service gaps. This should include, at a minimum, $390 million per annum.
- The Law Council recognises and accepts responsibility undertaking future complementary research and the development of a position paper which focuses on the needs of ‘the missing middle’ and the most effective strategies available to the private legal profession, amongst others in the profession, to assist this group to access legal assistance.
- Technological innovation should be pursued in the delivery of legal services to clients experiencing disadvantage, including through dedicated funding streams and having regard to identified examples of what works in this area. At the same time, it should be recognised that digitally excluded groups may be left behind by technological innovation without due care being taken.
- The Commonwealth Government, working with state and territory governments, should commission a full review of the resourcing needs of the judicial system.
- Guidelines regarding the applicability and use of fee exemptions and waivers should be made clearer and, as much as possible, more publicly known to court participants. Exemption categories and court discretion to grant exemptions should also be reviewed and broadened in certain jurisdictions.
- Transcript fee waivers should be generally available to clients of legal assistance services and pro bono services.
- Having regard to the multiple ways in which lack of housing contributes to and exacerbates poor justice outcomes, legal, policy and service frameworks should be improved to avoid unnecessary evictions into homelessness and prioritise homelessness prevention, through investment in safe, secure and appropriate housing, including crisis housing, for vulnerable groups who are at risk of homelessness.
- Government agencies (eg social security) which frequently deal with people experiencing disadvantage, and whose decisions can increase demands for civil legal assistance, should consider adapting their processes to enable more accessible, transparent decision-making.
- Justice Impact Tests should be introduced at the Commonwealth, state and territory level to facilitate the smoother development of laws and policies which have downstream impacts on the justice system.
- Governments should adopt law and policy development processes which ensure that the social impact of laws and policies upon vulnerable populations, including economically disadvantaged people, are better measured and evaluated;
- All state and territory governments should consider the adoption of Work and Development Order schemes, along the lines of the existing NSW model.
- Commonwealth, state and territory governments should (respectively, as appropriate) consider review and reform in the following priority areas of law, policy and practice, given their disproportionate impact on disadvantaged groups, including:
- fines, penalty and infringement notices;
- ‘law and order’ approaches’;
- certain social security laws and programs, particularly the Community Development Program and Cashless Debit Card Program.
- Periodic Legal Australia-Wide Surveys should be conducted to better measure the legal needs of the general population, as well as more targeted surveys and research which explores the legal needs and outcomes of different groups experiencing disadvantage within the justice system, including self-represented litigants.
[i] The Justice Project Final Report published by the Law Council of Australia (Aug 2018) can be found here.
Justice Project: Pro Bono Tool Summaries
Directory of Organisations
Quick links to organisations by location
Quick links to tables by location:
Australian Capital Territory (ACT)
Organisations | Information for Pro Bono Providers | Direct Legal Services | Law Reform |
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Care Consumer Law – CCL is a community legal centre that provides free legal advice and assistance to people in the ACT. CCL helps individual consumers to resolve problems with financial service providers (e.g. banks), telecommunication and utility companies, and other businesses and traders. Services include: • Credit Law; • Australian Consumer Law; • Contracts, debt recovery and bankruptcy; and • Financial abuse. CCL also provides a free financial counselling program for people experiencing financial difficulty, distress, and debt. They also perform community education on money managing topics such as budgeting, managing credit, dealing with debt, and understanding consumer rights and responsibilities. | For volunteering and partnership opportunities see here | ✔ | ✔ |
Canberra Community Law – Canberra Community Law provides a specialist Social Security Law service that can assist with: • Appealing Centrelink decisions; • Overpayments/underpayments; • Entitlements; • Debt recovery; • Payments cut off, reduced, cancelled and suspended; and • Claims refused. The service provides advice and can talk to Centrelink on a client’s behalf, appeal Centrelink decisions, and represent clients in Tribunal and Court hearings. | For volunteering opportunities see here | ✔ |
New South Wales (NSW)
Pro bono providers are encouraged to contact the Pro Bono Referral Schemes and Organisations to source pro bono matters. In New South Wales, please contact Justice Connect.
Organisations | Information for Pro Bono Providers | Direct Legal Services | Law Reform |
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Illawarra Legal Centre – The Illawarra legal centre operates a specialist Welfare Rights Service. Welfare Rights solicitors provide free help and assistance, ranging from information to advice, advocacy and representation on social security law and Centrelink matters to all residents of the Illawarra, South Coast and Wingecarribee regions in NSW. The Centre also provides advice for disputes with financial service provides in relation to loans or other credit contracts, with services in Warrawong, Wollongong, Warilla, Dapto, Unanderra, Corrimal and Nowra. The Centre also conducts community legal education programs for community groups and members of the general public. | For volunteering opportunities see here | ✔ | ✔ |
Welfare Rights Centre – the WRC is a community legal centre specialising in social security law and family assistance law and its administration by Centrelink. WRC provides free legal information, advice and representation to thousands of NSW residents every year who are adversely affected by Centrelink decision. The Centre also provides education to improve knowledge and understanding about social security law in the community. The Centre advocates for reforms to law and polcy that would make the Australian social security system fairer. The Centre also provides assistance to the community through community education and training, law reform and lobbying. They can advise people that their social security rights, entitlements and obligations and assist people though the social security review and appeals system, including Centrelink internal review and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. | For partnership and funding opportunities see here For volunteering opportunities see here | ✔ | ✔ |
Financial Rights Legal Centre – The FRLC is a community legal centre specialising in financial services, particularly in the areas of consumer credit, banking, debt recovery and insurance. It is the only such Centre in NSW, and one of the only centres in Australia that fully integrates telephone assistance and financial counselling with legal advice and representation. The FRLC also operates the Insurance Law Services, a national specialist consumer insurance advice service, Mob Strong Debt Help (specialising in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders clients nationally), and Credit & Debt Legal Advice Line. | For volunteering opportunities see here | ✔ | ✔ |
Redfern Legal Centre – The RLC provides free, confidential legal advice and casework, delivers community legal education and engages in law reform. The RLC hosts both the Money Problems & Consumer Complaints and Financial Abuse Service NSW. Money Problems & Consumer Complaints: RLC offers free, confidential legal information, advice and advocacy for people experiencing money problems or who have consumer complaints. RLC also provides this service to financial counsellors in NSW. Financial Abuse Service NSW: This Service provides free legal information and advice to people across NSW who have experienced financial abuse in an intimate partner relationship. Financial abuse is a form of family and domestic violence. It is a pattern of control, exploitation, or sabotage of money, finances, and economic resources. RLC can assist with credit, debt and consumer law problems arising from financial abuse. | For volunteering opportunities see here | ✔ |
Queensland (QLD)
Pro bono providers are encouraged to contact the Pro Bono Referral Schemes and Organisations to source pro bono matters. In Queensland, please contact LawRight.
Organisations | Information for Pro Bono Providers | Direct Legal Services | Law Reform |
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Caxton Legal Centre – The Caxton Legal Centre represets the interests of people who are disadvantaged or on a low income when they come in contact with the law. The Centre hosts the Consumer Credit Law and the Financial Protections Service | For volunteering opportunities see here | ✔ | ✔ |
Basic Rights Queensland – BRQ is a state-wide community legal centre, providing advice, advocacy and free legal services. They help people having problems with Centrelink or disability discrimination, and women in the workplace. They provide free information, advocacy and legal services on Social Security. Being a state-wide, telephone-based service, BRQ is able to offer the same expert, specialist services to all clients. BRQ undertakes social security case work and representation for clients who are extremely vulnerable and unable to advocate for themselves. BRQ also produces Community Legal Education on topics of Social Security and Disability Discrimination aimed at building peoples capacity to respond to their own or clients social security problems. | For volunteering opportunities see here For partnership opportunities see here | ✔ |
Organisations | Information for Pro Bono Providers | Direct Legal Services | Law Reform |
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Townsville Community Law – Townsville Community Law provides free, accessible and holistic legal services to residents of Townsville and surrounding communities. The Centre has specialist services in Social Security Law and the Seniors Financial Protections Service. TCL also provides community legal education and responds to Parliamentary and policy inquiries on legal issues they work on. | For volunteering opportunities see here | ✔ | ✔ |
South Australia (SA)
Pro bono providers are encouraged to contact the Pro Bono Referral Schemes and Organisations to source pro bono matters. In South Australia, please contact JusticeNet SA.
Organisations | Information for Pro Bono Providers | Direct Legal Services | Law Reform |
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Consumer Credit Law Centre of South Australia The Consumer Credit Law Centre runs out of the Uniting Communities Legal Centre. The Centre offers free specialist legal advice, financial counselling and legal representation for people experiencing money problems. They can assist people with credit issues such as loan disputes, mortgage stress or financial hardship. The Centre assists by providing legal advice, financial counselling, and representation. | For volunteering opportunities see here | ✔ |
Tasmania (TAS)
Organisations | Information for Pro Bono Providers | Direct Legal Services | Law Reform |
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Launceston Community Legal Centre – The LCLC provides legal advice to the most vulnerable in the community, assisting those who are financially disadvantaged. The Centre has a specialist Welfare Rights Advocacy Service, that provides advice, information and representation in matters relation to Centrelink/DSS issues for residents of the North of Tasmania. | For volunteering opportunities see here | ✔ |
Victoria (VIC)
Pro bono providers are encouraged to contact the Pro Bono Referral Schemes and Organisations to source pro bono matters. In Victoria, please contact Justice Connect.
Organisations | Information for Pro Bono Providers | Direct Legal Services | Law Reform |
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Social Security Rights Australia – SSRV is an independent state-wide community legal centre that specialised in social security and related law, policy and procedure. Their vision is for a fair and just society in which all people are able to receive a guaranteed adequate income in order to enjoy a decent standard of living. SSRV provides free legal advice in related to social security issues to people who live in Victoria, while also offering free services to social, community and health workers to help support their clients. SSRV also advocates for economically disadvantaged people by engaging with the media and government bodies. | For volunteering and partnership opportunities see here | ✔ | ✔ |
Consumer Action Law Centre – As a community legal centre, Consumer Action provides free legal advice and pursues litigation on behalf of vulnerable and disadvantaged consumers across Victoria, and is the largest specialist consumer legal practice in Australia. As well as working with consumers directly, Consumer Action provides legal assistance and professional training to community workers who advocate on behalf of consumers. CA also operates the Debt Helpline for Victoria, an email and telephone financial counselling service providing free financial advice to Victorians experience financial difficulty. CA also runs multiple campaigns and reports to advocate for finically disadvantaged consumers. | For volunteering opportunities see here | ✔ | ✔ |
Western Australia (WA)
Pro bono providers are encouraged to contact the Pro Bono Referral Schemes and Organisations to source pro bono matters. In Western Australia, please contact Law Access.
Organisations | Information for Pro Bono Providers | Direct Legal Services | Law Reform |
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Consumer Credit Legal Service WA – The CCLSWA is a not-for-profit charitable organisation which provides legal advice and representation to consumers in Western Australia in the areas of credit, banking and finance. CCLSWA also takes an active role in community legal education, law reform and policy issues affecting consumers. | For volunteering opportunities see here | ✔ | ✔ |
Welfare Rights & Advocacy Service – WRAS is a not for profit community legal centre that provides independent advice, information, referral, representation and advocacy in relation to Centrelink, Family Assistance, Tenancy (including private and public housing) and Social Security prosecution matters. The service is based in Perth and provides its services in a geographic catchment area within the state of Western Australia. | For partnership opportunities see here | ✔ | |
Sussex Street Community Law Services – The Sussex Street Community Law Service provides a Welfare Rights Unit which assists people who are having problems with Centrelink matters. Assistance provided ranges from information, advocacy and representation. The Unit can: • Provide free and confidential service; • Assist in appealing a Centrelink decision; • Give independent information and advice on matters relating to Centrelink; and • Advocate at various stages of an appeal, and appearing at SSAT and AAT hearings. | For volunteering opportunities see here | ✔ |
Organisations | Information for Pro Bono Providers | Direct Legal Services | Law Reform |
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Kimberley Community Legal Services – The KCLS provides a general legal service for disadvantaged people in the Kimberley from offices in Kununurra and Broome that engages in law reform, a multi-disciplinary approach to social work and client advocacy, and financial counselling services that provide practical tools for building financial resilience. These services cover tenancy, Centrelink, family violence, discrimination and complaints, and consumer and credit law. The Centre also hosts a financial counselling service, which provides advice, advocacy and support to people in financial difficulty, including unpaid bills, debts, fines and superannuation issues. The team aims to build financial resilience by providing practical information, money management skills and coaching to help clients make better financial decisions. TCL also provides community legal education and responds to Parliamentary and policy inquiries on legal issues they work on. | For volunteering opportunities see here | ✔ | ✔ |
[i] The Justice Project Final Report published by the Law Council of Australia (Aug 2018) can be found here.
Please note the Centre undertook the research to identify which priorities have been mapped to individual organisations. Not all organisations have confirmed yet whether the identified priorities are accurately mapped.