Submission: In response to the Productivity Commission's Inquiry into Access to Justice Arrangements 2013

Redfern Legal Centre has a long history of providing access to justice for the members of our community. We support the inquiry into access to justice arrangement and hope that it achieves its objectives of constraining costs and promoting access to justice services and equality before the law.

Our position is that access to the civil dispute resolution system without access to legal advice and information is not access to justice. 

We assist our clients, many of whom are vulnerable and disadvantages, seek a fair and just solution from the civil dispute resolution centre across a range of civil matters. Without access to advice and information from Community Legal Centres, many of our clients would not receive assistance at all in their legal matters.

In this submission we were able to respond to the inquiry drawing on our experiences on the importance of access to justice, preventing issues from evolving into bigger problems and using mechanisms other than courts to settle disputes. We were also able to provide examples of how we are pioneering effective and responsive legal services to address the concentration of unmet need among particular groups.