Rising demand for law centre services

A FREE legal service in Gisborne says it needs help to fund an extra lawyer after being inundated with requests for help.

Centre general manager Gillian Creach said in addition to being able to keep its doors open to the public, the centre hoped to raise enough to fund a third full-time lawyer.

“Recently we have been inundated by clients requesting appointments for things such as wills and enduring powers of attorney, and referrals from other community service providers.

“In particular, we have been working very closely with Whangaia Nga Pa Harakeke, a joint police-iwi initiative set up to address the very high level of family harm occurring in our communities.

“Another area of high demand is employees seeking legal assistance with employment matters ranging from disciplinary to personal grievances.

“We have two full-time lawyers working at the centre but only one lawyer position is funded by the Ministry of Justice, so we are always seeking additional funding for the second position.

“We also need to generate funds to employ a third lawyer as we currently have a waiting list of over three weeks for clients wanting appointments for legal advice.

“Our two lawyers are fully committed and are not available to provide legal assistance and representation.”

“In recent years Tairawhiti Community Law Centre has launched many fundraising initiatives to help with funding shortfalls resulting from zero increase in operating budget since 2008.

“The Ministry of Justice, our main funder, has actively encouraged us to look at alternative funding sources to generate additional income to ensure our centre remains financially viable and continues to be available to provide free legal services to those who cannot afford to pay and would otherwise not have access to justice.

Keeping the doors open

“We are using this time as an opportunity to inform the public of the various ways people can support us financially if they wish to help us keep our doors open.

“We need to generate income of around $30,000 per year to become self-sufficient over and above our Ministry of Justice contract.

“Our legal services are constantly in demand because we do not charge fees. When people come in to the Law Centre, or ring us wanting an appointment with a lawyer for a particular legal matter, it is very hard to turn people away.

“However, in some cases we have no other option because there may be a conflict of interest, the person may not be eligible due to high income, or it could be that their legal matter is in an area of law that our services do not cover such as commercial transactions, relationship property, conveyancing, letters of administration, probate or responding to a protection order.

“If there are other options such as the Family Dispute Resolution Services that are provided in the community through the Family Legal Advice Service (FLAS) lawyers, the Parenting Through Separation Programmes or the mediation service clients, we will refer clients to an appropriate provider.

“Eligibility for Community Law Centre’s free legal services is based on several factors.

“For access to our free legal advice, assistance and representation people may meet our criteria if they cannot afford to instruct a lawyer, do not qualify for legal aid, or otherwise would not get access to justice.

“Our Gisborne office also provides free over-the-phone legal advice service which is accessible to all.”

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Donations can be made through givealittle online or by buying a 2108 calendar from the centre’s Gisborne office at 11 Derby Street and several outlets in the city centre.

You can donate by creditcard or internet banking on Sunrise's Donate Now page. Alternatively, you can make regular donations through their workplace giving initiative. Sunrise will set up an endowment fund for the centre once a $5000 target is reached.

You could also choose to give a koha (donation) to the centre at any time.