June 16, 2016
Family violence, homelessness and the Royal Commission into Family Violence: The place of community legal help
Community legal centres (CLCs) play an essential part in the Victorian response to family violence. Most obviously, 20 CLCs provide duty lawyers for family violence intervention order matters in 29 Magistrates’ Courts around the State. These CLCs mainly assist victims – the majority being women and their children – so that they can be effectively protected from the perpetrator’s violence. The fact that CLCs specialise in this way helps victims, because those CLCs are aware of the appropriate support pathways, have close relationships with other family violence service providers, and are trained to work with traumatised clients.
READ MOREJune 02, 2016
Fact-checking Attorney-General Brandis on community legal centre funding
Federal Attorney-General George Brandis has been repeating a tired and misleading defence to media reporting of a 30 per cent cut threatening community legal centres nationally from July next year.
READ MOREMay 27, 2016
Community legal peak appoints respected lawyer, campaigner and advocate as new executive officer
Respected lawyer, campaigner and advocate Serina McDuff has been appointed as executive officer of the Federation of Community Legal Centres, the peak body for 50 community legal centres in Victoria.
READ MOREMay 24, 2016
Money for mobile blackspots in Geelong as legal help blackspots worsen under Federal cuts
As prime minister Malcolm Turnbull announces money for mobile blackspots in Corangamite, he is neglecting existing blackspots in free legal help and making them worse with more than $34 million in cuts left in place in the Federal Budget amid a broader Federal funding shortfall of $100m over four years.
READ MOREMay 16, 2016
Community lawyers join call for urgently needed boost to all legal assistance services
Community legal centres are set to join tomorrow’s rally in support of increased funding for legal aid, and for broader legal assistance services including community legal centres, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (ATSILS), and Family Violence Prevention Legal Services (FVPLS).
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