The Australian Taxation Office's‘Tax Pack’ is an example of a self-help legal service.
3.
Kits enabling individuals to draft wills and other legal documents are readily available in some Australian jurisdictions.
4.
Fathers' rights groups throughout Australia provide assistance to their members in family law matters. While this assistance may involve referral to a lawyer, they also provide advice and assistance in matters such as child support and the preparation of legal arguments for litigants in person.
5.
ReismannF. and CarrollD., Redefining Self-Help: Policy and Practice, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1995, p.1.
6.
State Bar of California's Legal Services Section's Standing Committee on Legal Services to Middle Income Persons, The Pro-se Counselling Handbook, 1994 cited by MostenF., ‘The Unbundling of Legal Services: Increasing Legal Access’ in SmithR., (ed.), Shaping the Future: New Directions in Legal Services, Legal Action Group, London, 1995, p.47.
7.
See MostenF., above, ref 6, and MostenF., ‘Unbundling Legal Services’, (1997) January, Oregon State Bar Bulletin, 9.
8.
See Australian Law Reform Commission, Managing Justice: A Review of the Federal Civil Justice System, Report 89, 2000, <http://www.alrc/publications/reports/89/>, 364–388. See also HunterR., Legal Services in Family Law, 2000, Justice Research Centre, Sydney, pp.200–204.
9.
The outline of examples of Australian self-help legal services is not meant to be exhaustive but rather to provide a (hopefully indicative) sample of such initiatives. Jeff's CLC and Victorian heritage as well as our current location in Queensland will no doubt be obvious.
10.
BiondoS., ‘Community Legal Education’ in GiddingsJ., (ed.), Legal Aid in Victoria: At the Crossroads Again, 1998, Fitzroy Legal Service, p.169.
11.
Biondo, above, ref 10, 170.
12.
Biondo, above, ref 10.
13.
Various community legal education projects are discussed by Biondo, above ref 10, pp.176–9.
14.
The following year (1978) saw Readers Digest Australia publish a Family Guide to Australian Law, edited by Reader's Digest Services Pty Ltd, 1978.
15.
ChestermanJ., Poverty Law and Social Change: The Story of the Fitzroy Legal Service, Melbourne University Press, 1996, pp.100–2.
16.
BiondoS., interview, 6 April 2000.
17.
SpenderL., (ed.), Rest Assured: A Legal Guide to Wills, Estates & Funerals, Redfern Legal Centre Publishing, 1988 with the assistance of the Law Foundation of NSW. A revised edition was published in 1995.
18.
BrennanT., and others, The Annotated Social Security Act, Welfare Rights Centre, Canberra, 1984.
19.
FieldC. and FreckletonI., Opinion, (1999) 24(3) Alternative Law Journal110.
20.
LukerT., ‘Review of Putting out the Garbage: A Guide to Domestic Violence and the Law’, (1990) 15(6) Legal Service Bulletin285.
21.
Luker, above, ref 20.
22.
Chesterman, above, ref 15, pp.148–50.
23.
Legal Aid Commission of Victoria, 9th Statutory Report 1987–1988, p.35.
24.
Legal Aid Commission of Victoria, above, ref 23.
25.
Legal Aid Commission of Victoria, 16th Statutory Annual Report 1994–1995, p.17.
26.
Legal Aid Commission of Victoria, 9th Statutory Report 1987–1988, p.26.
27.
Legal Aid Commission of Victoria, 16th Statutory Annual Report 1994–1995, p.17.
28.
The Australia Party was founded as the Liberal Reform Group in 1966 by a Sydney businessman called Gordon Barton. It comprised disaffected Liberal Party members protesting against the party's Vietnam and other policies. It changed its name to the Australian Reform Movement then the Australia Party. The Australia Party had little electoral impact, never winning a parliamentary seat although a sitting Independent Tasmanian senator named Turnbull joined the party at one point. The Australia Party was absorbed into the Australian Democrats in 1977, along with the South Australian New Liberal Movement.
29.
SedgmanDale, interview, 6 April 2000.
30.
StoneKevin and Van der HorElizabeth, interview, 12 May 2000.
31.
Internet service providers which carry LAW4U legal content include Telstra Bigpond, Nine MSN, Choice Magazine.
32.
PhillipsRob, interview, 9 January 2001.
33.
PhillipsRob, interview, 9 January 2001.
34.
JanssenAnn, interview, 19 December 2000.
35.
JanssenAnn, interview, 19 December 2000.
36.
BiondoSam, interview, 6 April 2000.
37.
ReganF., ‘Why Do Legal Aid Services Vary Between Societies?’ in ReganF.PatersonA.GorielyT. and FlemingD., (eds), The Transformation of Legal Aid: Comparative and Historical Studies, Oxford University Press, 1999, p.181.
38.
Where people needing to either make or defend a child support application could attend a forum where, with up to a dozen other people facing similar issues, they could obtain instruction and advice from a solicitor.
39.
LawlerMerran, interview, 20 March 2000, GibsonFrances, interview, 21 June 2001.
In 2000, the Queensland Court of Appeal established a pro bono scheme involving senior barristers in assisting people who are appealing against a conviction for murder or manslaughter and who have been refused Legal Aid for their appeal. See ‘Court of Appeal Pro Bono Scheme’, (2000) 25(2) Alternative Law Journal93.
42.
GodsellPamLynchAngela and RathusZoe, interview, 3 May 2000.
43.
Changes in 1996 to the Family Law Act significantly increased the likelihood of women becoming respondents to applications relating to contact and breaches of contact orders. Reductions in Commonwealth legal aid funding, starting in 1997, also increased the demand for self-help services.
44.
RathusZoe, interview, 3 May 2000.
45.
GennH., Paths to Justice: What People Do and Think About Going to Law, Hart Publishing, Oxford, 1999.
Kimberley and South West regions of Western Australia, the Iron Triangle region of South Australia, the Centre-West region of Queensland, the New South Wales South Coast and the cross-border region of New South Wales and Victoria.
51.
Far West of New South Wales, Gippsland in Victoria, the Goldfields region of Western Australia and the South East and Riverland regions of South Australia.
52.
LawlerMerran, interview, 20 March 2000.
53.
GodsellLynch and Rathus, interview, 3 May 2000.
54.
Genn, above, ref 45, pp.156–7.
55.
Genn, above, ref 45, p.161.
56.
LawlerMerran, interview, 20 March 2000.
57.
For an explanation of the current funding arrangements, see Hunter, above, ref 8, pp.221–3.
58.
FaulksJustice, interview, 21 March 2001.
59.
Hunter, above, ref 8, p.223.
60.
Mosten, above, ref 7, p.14.
61.
Mosten, above, ref 6, p.52.
62.
JanssenAnn, interview, 19 December 2000.
63.
GiddingsJ., ‘Legal Aid: At the Crossroads Again’, in GiddingsJ., (ed.) Legal Aid in Victoria: At the Crossroads Again, Fitzroy Legal Service, 1998, pp.10–14.
64.
GiddingsJ., ‘Casework, Bloody Casework’, (1992) 17(6) Alternative Law Journal261.
65.
AbelR., ‘Law Without Politics: Legal Aid Under Advanced Capitalism’, [1985] UCLA Law Review474 at 487.
