News
Goulburn Valley CLC Pilot demonstrates need
The Goulburn Valley Community Legal Centre Pilot (managed by Loddon Campaspe CLC and UnitingCare Cutting Edge) has gone from strength to strength since opening in October 2009. It has also demonstrated the need for a fully-funded CLC to complement the services offered in the region by Victoria Legal Aid and the private profession. Since October the Pilot has assisted more than 200 clients through:
- direct legal assistance
- including legal information, referral, advice and casework
- telephone and face to face advice - coordinated pro-bono assistance
- community legal education
- legal issues forums on migration and family violence
For more information about service opening hours and contact details, please visit our Outreach page.
For more information about the Pilot service, please email Solicitor Joanne Ellis.
posted 28 July 2010
Missing Persons Submission
In May the Loddon Campapse CLC made a submission to the Victorian Law Reform Commission’s Review of the Guardianship and Administration Act 1986 (Vic). The Centre was influenced to make this submission on becoming aware of the experience of a client, the father of a missing Bendigo man, who had no legal means of dealing with his missing son’s estate.
The submission argued that friends, family and other concerned people seeking to protect the estates of missing persons are not served by current legislation, and that a broader application of the Act would help people manage their loved one's affairs through a difficult and uncertain period. The Centre submitted that missing persons, while they remain missing, have impaired decision making ability, but may not necessarily fall within the Act's definition of ‘disability’, and thereby attract its application. To download the submission, please click here.
In July the Centre provided the Victorian Attorney-General with an addendum to the original submission after learning of section 24A of the Administration and Probate Act 1958 (Vic) (Section 24A), which deals with uncared for property. The addendum argues that Section 24A is outdated, unnecessarily complex and underutilised by trustee companies to protect the estates of missing persons. To download the addendum, please click here.
posted 28 July 2010
Local legal services flyer updated
In 2009 the CLC partnered with other local legal services to produce a simple flyer that outlined how people can access free legal and advocacy services in the Loddon Campaspe region.
Legal and Advocacy Services in the Loddon Campaspe Region has now been updated, redesigned and reprinted with help from the Victorian Legal Assistance Forum and Victoria Legal Aid.
The flyer now includes information on the Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention Legal Service (a statewide service) and the Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council (which has a Loddon Mallee Consumer Advocate).
For more information or to order copies of Legal and Advocacy Services in the Loddon Campaspe Region, please email the CLC's Community Legal Education Worker Steve Womersley.
posted 28 July 2010
Victoria Law goes live
The Victoria Law Foundation recently launched Victoria Law, a new website for Victorians with plain-language legal education materials.
This new site has links to numerous online publications, including publications in Chinese, Greek, Somali, Turkish and Vietnamese.
Several community legal centres, including the Loddon Campaspe CLC, have been active with representatives from other Victorian legal agencies in the site's development.
Victoria Law complements Community Law (produced by the Federation of Community Legal Centres, which provides information on Victoria's 50+ Community Legal Centres) and Fitzroy Legal Service's excellent Law Handbook online and Law 4 Community websites.
For more information, please email Victoria Law Administrator Sally Johnson.
posted 28 July 2010
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