About Community Legal Centres

There are over 200 Community Legal Centres (CLCs) across Australia and over 50 in Victoria. CLCs provide free legal advice and assistance and advocacy, conduct community legal education activities, and undertake law reform activities.

We have a close connection with our communities because we often consult with our clients, members and other community organisations to make sure we deliver suitable services.

We work towards:

• developing a better understanding of the legal system within our communities so injustices and inequities in the law can be changed
• creating more chances for people in the community to access and have a say in the legal system, and
• encouraging and supporting people in the community to have a say over the work and management of CLCs.

This approach is further enhanced by the fact that we:

• operate non-profit organisations located within the communities we service
• are independent of government
• value the relationships between the different areas of work we do, and
• respond to the links between legal and other ‘social justice’ problems faced by individuals and the broader community, such as health, financial or housing problems.

What types of CLCs are there?

There are generalist and specialist legal centres. Generalist centres provide services to people depending on where they live: metropolitan Melbourne, or in regional and rural Victoria. Specialist centres focus on particular groups with specific needs, including women, Indigenous people, or young people or on particular areas of law, including disability, mental health, employment, social security, consumer, and tenancy (eg. renting).

Who can use CLCs?

Generalist centres will normally only service clients living, working or studying in their surrounding area. Most of our services are free. In fact, more than 100,000 people use our services each year and most of these people are on low incomes.

Our centres have also developed expertise in helping people who are disadvantaged because of:

• language
• disability
• family violence, or
• citizenship status.