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Empowering Vulnerable Communities: Best Legal Outreach Practices by LawRight

LawRight, a not-for-profit legal organization, offers free legal services through Outreach Legal Clinics to homeless individuals, refugees, and those with mental health concerns. Founded in 2002, they operate clinics in Brisbane and Cairns. As a member of Community Legal Centres Queensland, LawRight collaborates with various stakeholders to improve access to justice, health, housing, and legal rights. Their proactive approach includes identifying legal problems of vulnerable groups and advocating for systemic reforms. Outreach is essential to reach vulnerable clients, tailor services, and address unmet legal needs early. Collaboration, multi-disciplinary support, training, technology, legal expertise, cultural sensitivity, and trauma-informed approaches are key to successful outreach. Resources available include Outreach Best Practices, Consultation Report, and Research Report.

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Empowering Vulnerable Communities: Best Legal Outreach Practices by LawRight

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  1. Best Practice in Legal Outreach Kurt Maroske February 2019

  2. LawRight • LawRight is a not-for-profit, community-based legal organisation that coordinates the provision of pro bono legal services for individuals and community groups. • The Outreach Legal Clinics provides free legal information, representation and advice to vulnerable people, including: • those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness; • refugees; and • people experiencing mental health concerns. • Our Outreach Legal Clinics started in 2002 as the Homeless Persons’ Legal Clinic, and we currently operate 10 clinics in Brisbane and 3 in Cairns.

  3. Who LawRight Are • We are a community legal centre, and a member of the Community Legal Centres Queensland and the National Association for Community Legal Centres. • We are a partnership, and work closely with law firms, non-legal community agencies, the Bar Association of Qld, university law faculties, the Qld Law Society, and Legal Aid Queensland.

  4. How LawRight Helps • LawRight improves the lives of vulnerable people for the common good by: • Increasing access to the justice system, improving the health and wellbeing of clients, and improving access to housing, income and legal rights; • Creating positive change through proactive reform of systems, laws and policy. • We identify the unaddressed legal problems of vulnerable people by: • Implementing research frameworks to systematically identify access to justice gaps; • Creating resources that diagnose unrecognised legal need or respond to unaddressed legal need.

  5. Why do outreach? • Provide access for vulnerable clients • Tailor your service to a chosen demographic • Be where your clients are • Fill an unmet legal need • Intervene before a problem escalates • Meet the needs of remote communities

  6. How to do outreach • Understand the importance of collaboration • Value multi-disciplinary, holistic support • Train your partner agencies • Integrate with partner agencies • Think about technology

  7. The Outreach Lawyer • Understand relevant areas of law • Understand multiple and compounding disadvantage • Understand your clients’ capability • Communicate legal concepts simply and carefully • Be culturally sensitive • Be trauma-informed

  8. 3 Resources • Outreach Best Practices • Consultation Report • Research Report

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