St Kilda Legal Service Annual Report 2006-2007 - Community Law

In May an advocate/ guardian with the Office ofthe Public Advocate, conducted a legal educationsession for volunteers. The training coveredan overview of the different types of powers ofattorney, ascertaining a client’s legal capacity andguardianship.In June a CLE worker with the Mental HealthLegal Centre, facilitated a training session forvolunteers on dealing with difficult situations.The session gave volunteers tips on improvingcommunication skills with clients, managingclient expectations and raising the issue of mentalillness with clients.Arts Law ProjectA small community grant from the City of PortPhillip enabled the Legal Service to organisefour free seminars covering areas of law relevantto artists and arts organisations. The seminarswere held on Monday nights at the Dogs Bar andLinden Gallery and presented by lawyers fromClayton Utz who offered their time pro bono. Theseries of seminars covered intellectual property,defamation, contracts, director’s duties andgovernance issues for arts organisations’ boards.Thank you to Clayton Utz for their support ofthis project and to the lawyers who presentedthe sessions - Chris Broadbent, Amanda Jones,Teresa Willemsen and Jasna Bratic.CLE for studentsThe Service presented a CLE session on newlegislation relevant to workers in the alcoholand other drug field for students undertaking aCertificate IV course in drug & alcohol counselling.We also gave a CLE presentation on street sex workand the law to Monash University Law studentsundertaking a community development course.National CLC conferenceworkshopSKLS ran a workshop on multi-departmentraids at the 2006 National CLC conference inWollongong. Multi-departmental raids usuallyinvolve Federal agencies, such as Centrelink andthe Department of Immigration and Citizenship,joining state agencies with coercive powers, suchas the police, to undertake raids targeting certainindustries. The targeted industries usually employa high number of contract workers who oftendon’t now their legal rights, such as sex workersin brothels, taxi drivers and fruit pickers.Law Week 2007The theme for Law Week (13-19 May) this yearwas human rights, marking the introductionof Victoria’s new Charter of Human Rights andResponsibilities. The Legal Service held a CLEsession at Stonnington Library during Law Weekintroducing the Charter and how it may apply at agrassroots level. The session was part of a series,with speakers on tenancy and consumer rights,wills and estates and Legal Aid services.2007 National Youth AffairsConferenceAs a continuation of her work last year, Vandagave a talk and participated in a plenary sessionat the 2007 National Youth Affairs conference inMelbourne. The paper and plenary session were onthe subject of young people, public space and thelaw. The talk was aimed at young people under 25and was very well attended, with a lively questionand answer session ensuing during the hour.Legal Policy & Law ReformPolicy development and law reform activities areintegral for the Legal Service in striving towards itsvision that ‘all members of our local community willhave access to a demystified and just legal system’.The Legal Service is committed to undertaking legalpolicy development and law reform activities andrecognises that this complements the caseworkundertaken by the Service.The Legal Service recognises that legal policy andlaw reform activities may be pro-active, initiated bythe Service, or reactive in response to legislativereviews by government or other law reform bodies.Law reform activities may be short-term, such asresponding to a one-off call for submissions, ormay involve long term campaigns. The Federationof Community Legal Centres coordinates CLCsto lobby for social justice and human rights.A report released in May titled ‘Making the LegalSystem more responsive to Community: A Reporton the Impact of Victorian Community LegalCentre Law Reform Initiatives’ found that CLCsAnthea Teakle on the go!The Thurs night bustleAnnual Report 2006 – 2007 19