Community Legal Services
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 edu...
General Assistance & Casework
CLCs offer free advice services, with some doing so in evenings as well as daytime. Some of the centres do not require appointments for their sessions, but it is always advisable to telephone first. CLCs have developed a mode of operation which is quite distinct from Legal Aid Commissions on t...
Community Legal Education
Although advice work is the basis of their operations, CLCs also direct a great deal of their resources to community legal education. This may take a variety of forms: brochures and other printed material (like this Handbook), videos, provision of speakers, dissemination of information via the in...
Law Reform & Advocacy
CLCs also have a philosophy that many of the problems faced by their clients are the result of unjust laws or unjust administration of the law, and that it is not enough to simply deal with these problems at the level of the individual. CLCs have therefore taken up general issues of concern ab...
Your Nearest CLC
Community Legal Centres operating in Tasmania offer a wide range of services, including free and confidential legal advice and referral. The Hobart Community Legal Service, Launceston Community Legal Centre and North-West Community Legal Centre each offer a general legal service within their r...
Hobart Community Legal Service
This service conducts an evening advice service staffed by volunteer lawyers and community workers providing legal advice and referral sessions on Monday and Wednesday evenings between 6.00pm and 7.30pm. The Service is open Monday to Thursday from 9.00am to 5.00pm, and Fridays 9.00am to 1.oopm...
Launceston Community Legal Centre
The Launceston Community Legal Centre provides advice on many areas of the law. Go to the Community Legal Centre website to see the full range of discrimination law and general law on which the Launceston service provides advice. The service runs outreach services, giving general legal advice ...
North-West Community Legal Centre
The North West Community Legal Centre is located in Devonport. They provide advice about a range of legal matters, and provide a limited casework role. Consultations are by appointment, which may be made during office hours. Centre staff are also available to arrange talks to groups on a numbe...
Environmental Defenders Office
The Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) is Tasmania's public interest community legal centre for the environment. The Office assists the public with free legal advice, help with environmental law research, environmental law reform, referral to other groups or agencies and community legal educati...
Tenants Union of Tasmania
The Tenants Union is also a community legal centre; it operates on a part-time basis, and provides a free advice and advocacy service to people experiencing tenancy problems. Telephone advice is available Monday — Friday, 9.30am—4pm (1 300 652 641). Appointments are available Tuesday—Thursd...
Women’s Legal Service
The Women's Legal Service offers advice and referrals to women throughout Tasmania, initially via a Freecall number (1 800 682 468). The Freecall advice line is staffed between 10am and 4pm each weekday. Outside of these hours you can leave a message. Face-to-face appointments are offered i...
Consumer Advice Services
There are services available to consumers through the Department of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading. Often consumer issues tie in with other areas of the law, such as tenancy. Service Tasmania provides a list of websites, such as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) webs...
Refugee Legal Service
The Refugee Legal Service is a volunteer service dedicated to providing legal advice to refugees. Their contact details are rls.tasmania@gmail.com.
Page last updated 13/12/2017