Community Law: Use Them

By: Ben Drury (they/them)

Last year, nearly 50,000 people were convicted, almost 2500 personal grievances were laid against employers, and 4821 people took their landlords to the Tenancy Tribunal. The law is always present, like the mold in your bathroom, yet it often feels inaccessible. Legal advice can be expensive, and most lawyers are more accustomed to dealing with big banks, wealthy clients, and nice little canapés. So where can you turn for accessible legal help?

Community Law is a nationwide charity that provides free legal services. Established in the late 1970s by a group of law students determined to break down the barriers to justice in Aotearoa, Community Law has been serving the most vulnerable communities for over 40 years. With support from local law firms and volunteer lawyers, Community Law handled over 52,000 cases last year alone. There are 24 Law Centres across the country, including two in the Wellington region—one on Dixon Street in Pōneke and another in Te Awa Kairangi (Lower Hutt).

The easiest way to get help from Community Law is to go to a legal advice session. There’s 12 sessions held each week, where you can chat privately with a lawyer about your situation and explore your legal options. While all sessions have generalist lawyers,

each session also has a special focus, such as family law or employment law.

It’s best to attend the session that matches your specific need. For instance, if you’re deadline with landlord issues, the housing legal advice session on Monday nights is the place to if you need to talk about some shenanigans your landlord’s getting up to. The full session timetable is available via a QR code at the bottom of this article.

Before seeing a lawyer, you'll need to fill out a form with your contact details, a brief description of your legal issue, and information about any other parties involved. This is because lawyers must follow certain rules when giving legal advice.

If attending a session isn't convenient, you can also seek advice from Community Law’s Pou Whirinaki team. Co-founded in the 1980s by Moana Jackson, the Māori Law Centre in Wellington laid the groundwork for Pou Whirinaki, which continues to offer a kaupapa Māori approach to legal assistance. If you’d prefer to be seen by Pou Whirinaki, simply let the receptionists know when you arrive or email them at pouwhirinaki@wclc.org.nz.

You don’t even have to visit a Community Law office to get help. The Law Manual Online is packed with free information about your legal rights in everyday situations and how to enforce them. It’s written in plain English, making it easy to understand your options. Just Google ‘Law Manual Online’ to find it.

If you prefer speaking with a lawyer over the phone, you can request a callback by filling out the ‘Remote Advice Request’ form on www.wclc.org.nz. However, please note that there might be about a week’s wait.

Community Law aims to be a welcoming, inclusive place to get legal help. If you’re unsure how we can help, or whether or not it’s even a legal issue you’re dealing with, come have a chat or give Community Law a call—our team can point you in the right direction.