Just when it felt as though life might be heading back to normality, people in our area have another hurdle to get over, with the closure of the NSW-VIC border on 8 July. Despite this latest challenge, our service will continue to deliver legal assistance to people on both sides of the border.

Our offices are still closed to the public but you can reach us on 1800 918 377 or contact us through the website. Our service may be limited, due to the current circumstances, so if we are unable to assist, we will refer you to other appropriate services. 

We are still encouraging referrals to help people in need, and our usual legal service intake criteria applies. Our lawyers can also provide secondary consults to service providers to give general advice on what may be the best course of action for your client.

Free legal advice is also available through Victoria Legal Aid on 1300 792 387 or online chat at www.legalaid.vic.gov.au, or LawAccess NSW on 1300 888 529. The Albury Legal Aid Office can also be contacted on 02 6020 7200 for telephone advice.

You can also visit our COVID page for helpful answers to common legal questions being asked at this time. 

We are also fortunate to have received Government funding which will boost our capacity to respond to the problems many are predicting will appear towards the end of the year because of COVID-19. This means we can add another lawyer to our community legal service to help us meet the expected demand. You can read about the announcement on our website.

We will be closely monitoring the issues that people are reporting as a result of the border closure, and if necessary, will feed these back to the relevant authority. It's important we continue to advocate and highlight problems people are experiencing that impact their daily lives. If you see a trend or theme through the work you are doing and would like to let us know, please email Simon Crase at scrase@umfc.com.au. 

Wishing you well for the remainder of 2020!

Got a legal question for HRCLS? Just call us on 1800 918 377 or email us at cls@umfc.com.au

We help solve legal problems

As a generalist free community legal service, we provide assistance on a range of legal issues, including:

·       family law

·       family violence

·       separation and divorce

·       youth law

·       motor vehicle accidents

·       credit and debt issues

·       consumer complaints

·       fines

·       other everyday legal problems

Some legal problems, like bankruptcy, conveyancing, personal injury, and commercial matters, we are unable to assit with, but if you call us, we can refer you to someone who can help. We prioritise people experiencing family violence, children and youth, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people with a disability or mental illness, the elderly, low income earners, and people from non-English speaking backgrounds.

Thumbs up from Aunty Marlene

We wanted to share this feedback from a client who saw our lawyer, Karen Keegan, at the Albury Wodonga Aboriginal Health Service recently. It's always good to hear about the impact we have on people's lives, and we are grateful for Aunty Marlene sharing her story with us.

Like any organisation or group serving the community, we pride ourselves on treating people with respect and dignity, and understand the importance of listening and acting in accord with what we say we will do to help. Aunty Marlene's responses to how Karen helped are below.

How did you get to see Karen?

I was at the Sewing Circle and there was a lady there who works with Karen. I talked to her and she said “You need to go and see Karen.” So I went home, called up and made an appointment. It was easy.

What happened when you spoke to Karen?

I told her my situation and she asked me what sort of information I had, and did I have any proof. I did have proof and gave her all the paperwork I had. She said she would get to work on my problem as soon as she could, and would try her best. After that, she kept in contact with me at all times to let me know what was happening, and when she found out the problem had been fixed, she called me straight away.

How did it help you?

I had a problem with another organisation and I was very happy with what Karen did for me. If I know any of my friends are in trouble, I’ll recommend they go and see Karen.

How did you feel about the help you got?

She made me feel very comfortable. I wasn’t fearful or anything like that. She spoke to me at my level and didn’t talk down to me.

It’s an excellent service and I would even go further than that. I would like to tell people the service was spot on, especially for Kooris, because sometimes we’re frightened that when we go to a service people will talk above us and want to do things in a different way than what we’d like. But Karen listened to me and told me what she was going to do and did it. 

Getting control of utility bills

Energy & Water Ombudsman NSW continues to help consumers who are experiencing difficulties with their electricity, gas and water providers. The office is open to help people who require assistance in managing a complaint in regard to their energy provider, or if they just have an enquiry. Contact 1800 246 545 or email complaints@ewon.com.au.

EWON is very concerned about rising energy bills. With more people now working from home and more people unemployed, they may be struggle to pay energy bills that have likley increased over winter. Consumers also have other concerns that they haven’t had previously, such as rental affordability and mental health, etc. EWON would like to let people know about the support currently available.

EWON offers informative articles to include in newsletters, including topics such as:

-          About EWON

-          Energy saving

-          Customer assistance programs

-          High energy bills

-          Difficulty paying bills

-          Coronavirus and managing your energy account.

Please contact Community Engagement Officer Julie Bye at julieb@ewon.com.au to organise this.

FREE online workshop– Critical Legal Issues Map – Identification of Legal Issues (Foundation)

Family Safety Victoria  has recently funded Women’s Legal Service to deliver their Critical Legal Issues Map training to specialist family violence practitioners. Developed over the past six years with sector, the CLIM training helps practitioners increase their skills and capabilities in identifying and escalating client legal issues and legal system navigation. 

Specialist family violence practitioners and other specialist practitioners can build their skills and knowledge to identify legal issues, provide legal information and make timely and appropriate referrals to legal services.

Women’s Legal Service Victoria are facilitating a full day engaging and interactive online training. These training session will be available on various dates from 28 July. 

Who is this training for?

This full day training is for family violence support practitioners.

What will you learn?

·       Understand the essentials in family violence law, child protection law and family law, including emerging COVID-19 issues

·       Learn how to ask the right questions to identify client’s critical legal issues (even when clients don’t present with these questions)

·       Differentiate between giving legal information versus legal advice

·       Provide legal information to assist client’s matters

·       Identify timely legal referral pathways, including working collaboratively with lawyers

·       Preparing clients for court, and meetings with their lawyer

What will you receive?

The workshop using a variety of online methods to ensure participants learn practical knowledge and skills specifically tailored for their roles. Participants will receive copy of the Critical Legal Issues Map manual which is specifically tailored to use in their workplace.

 Multiple dates available – limited tickets for each event

There are multiple dates available - please register your interest for this free training here  

 For any queries, please contact ilana@womenslegal.org.au

 This training is funded by the Centre for Workforce Excellence at Family Safety Victoria.

Local Victoria Police want your feedback on Community Connection initiative - 2-minute survey

Survey Overview:

Working to keep our communities safe ~ be victim-centric ~ agile ~ responsible ~ visible ~ address community’s needs

Victoria Police is asking residents within the local community to advise police about any safety concerns, safety improvement ideas, and trust and confidence they have in local police. The survey is designed to give people a greater voice in Victoria Police’s ongoing efforts in creating a safer Victoria.

From July 1, police will be out and about in the community as part of the Victoria Police Community Connection (CommConnect) initiative across the Eastern Region of Victoria.

CommConnect is a different approach to policing. Officers (usually at Sergeant level) will be engaging with key stakeholders in specific sectors of the Police Service Area, and more directly focusing resources to build stronger and more collaborative relationships.

Allocating ownership to a specific supervisor to keep our communities safe will increase presence and visibility and allow police to respond to and focus on victims and people in need in a more agile way. As part of this process, local police are asking their communities about concerns they have regarding policing in their areas, and ways police can better connect and support the community to address those concerns.

Each survey relates to a Local Government area, so please feel free to respond to the survey relevant to your area. Please know your information is totally confidential and will not identify you.

If you live in Wodonga, Indigo or Towong Council,  please click on the below link and complete the short 2 minute survey here. (Survey closes on 31.08.2020. Feedback to community will occur by 26.10.2020).