Photo: ABC News Thuy Ong
Ange Lavoipierre
June 2015 - ABC News
The National Association of Community Legal Centres released figures suggesting around 43 per cent of those who sought their help in the 2013-14 financial year were rejected.
The figures were released as the sector braces for funding cuts in the new financial year, ahead of a further 30 per cent cut in 2017.
The free legal advice and representation offered by community legal centres (CLCs) is often a last resort, relied upon by those in serious financial need or experiencing chronic disadvantage.
Anna, not her real name, has been a disability pensioner for 40 years and is from a non-English speaking background.
She said she could not afford a lawyer and received help from Marrickville Legal Centre, in Sydney's inner west.
"The money sometimes is not enough. When you have a car, you have a pet, you have bills to pay and rent," Anna said. Anna's phone had been cut off and Telstra would not reconnect the line because of her poor credit rating. "I come in to the legal centre and they helped me to put my telephone back, because they reject me for some reason."
Anna is one of more than 209,000 people who were helped by CLCs during the 2013-14 financial year. In the same period, there were at least another 157,000 people who were turned away.
National Association of Community Legal Centres convenor, Michael Smith, said he believed that figure could be even higher.
"I think that figure is increasing and I think at the same time we're having more people come to us, particularly around family violence issues," Mr Smith said.
He said that along with enormous demand on the centres, the sector is reeling from recent Federal Government funding cuts. The principal solicitor at Marrickville Legal Centre, Annette Van Gent, said she already had lost two solicitors this year.
"Any cut to our funding, means a cut to staff, and any cut to our staff means that there's an impact on frontline services," Ms Van Gent said. "That means that there are vulnerable people that we're not able to assist."
Mr Smith said the further loss of funding would leave more people like Anna without help."Often CLCs are the last point, so after us, there's really nowhere else to go," he said.
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