LAW IN THE COMMUNITY
HOW A COMMUNITY LEGAL NETWORK IS DELIVERING LEGAL SERVICES TO HARD-TO-REACH PLACES MICHELLE FORD, MANAGING LAWYER, WESTSIDE LAWYERS
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on-profit legal services play an important role in helping disadvantaged and vulnerable members of the community obtain access to justice. This is particularly important in regional, remote and rural and very remote areas where access to legal services is extremely limited. Providing an effective legal service in country areas comes with many challenges. For this reason, in April this year Community Legal Centres Australia initiated a national network to bring together community legal workers to foster collaboration and support between rural, regional, remote and very remote legal communities, to share resources and knowledge and seek to increase the availability and access to legal services within RRRR communities. The network has adopted the name “The National Regional, Rural, Remote and Very Remote (RRRR) Community Legal Network” and currently has around 40 members from across Australia. This article seeks to raise awareness of the types of services that are available in RRRR communities, the challenges faced by members of these communities in accessing justice, and the impact of those challenges on the community. Who Are We? What Do We Do? As an insight into who we are, how we help RRRR communities achieve access to justice, and some of our hopes and challenges, we are sharing with you some member accounts. Anne Lewis is the Director of the North Queensland Women’s Legal Service (NQWLS). She has worked in Community Legal Centres in North Queensland since 1992 and has advocated for increased access to justice for vulnerable people living in rural, regional and remote
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areas through increased resources for Community Legal Centres (‘CLCs’) as a key part of her work. NQWLS has offices in Townsville and Cairns and assists women living in RRRR communities, from Sarina in Central Queensland to the Torres Strait in the north and west to the Northern Territory border. NQWLS provides legal advice, casework assistance and representation in the areas of family law, domestic and family violence, migration, child protection, sexual assault, human rights and discrimination, and Victim Assist. They also deliver and develop CLE resources and undertake law reform work. Legal information, resources and referrals can be provided in any area of law. Anne has witnessed first-hand the challenges for women living in RRRR communities across the top half of Queensland, and suspects those challenges are similar to those faced by people living in RRRR communities right across Australia. The vast majority of women who seek help from NQWLS as a specialist women’s legal service are impacted by domestic or family violence and need legal help and a range of supports to escape violence and find safety for themselves and their children. Services needed by women living in RRRR communities are often scant or nonexistent in some places and every free legal and support service is stretched to capacity and then some. Responding to domestic violence and rebuilding lives after trauma and family breakdown requires an integrated community response which can offer wraparound, trauma-informed services. Increased training about the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ and the social benefits of holistic service delivery options, is an ongoing need for service providers across the justice
Bushfire Community Legal Program solicitor Holly McCoy outside the Parndana (KI) Recovery Centre in December 2020.
system, for police, the courts, lawyers, for community support networks and for the public. Education will support change. NQWLS works collaboratively with its CLC and community partners in its region to provide education, resources and training in the community to the extent resources will allow. When asked why NQWLS decided to be part of the RRRR network, Anne enthusiastically described a range of benefits envisaged by herself and her organisation, including the potential to create stronger connections with likeminded individuals and organisations who are also working to create change. “Collaboration will always achieve more than working alone especially when tackling the social issues that surface at a time of crisis in a woman’s life. Separation or Domestic/Family Violence are often just one of many issues a woman might
