Overview

Community legal centres (CLCs) provide free advice to help people sort out their legal problems, and are often a useful first contact point for people with a legal difficulty. CLCs not only give legal advice, but also work to change laws when they are unfair or unjust, and undertake community education to help people in the community understand their legal rights and responsibilities.

There are six CLCs in Tasmania. Of these, three provide a generalist service and are regionally located in Hobart, Launceston and Devonport, whilst the other three are smaller specialist services located in Hobart but with statewide coverage. They are a part of a network of over 160 CLCs, which operate throughout Australia.

The Tasmanian CLCs are funded solely by the Commonwealth Government, although the Tasmanian Government may provide some non-recurrent project funding from time to time. CLCs are ‘non-government organisations’, managed on a voluntary basis by locally-based committees annually elected from the agencies’ membership. They operate independently of the government sector.