Advocacy in Albany: Piddington PLT in the Great Southern
Sophia Drazevic spent four weeks in Albany with the Albany CLC
Perth is great. But getting out of Perth? Well, that’s just as great. The fresh air, the open roads, the award winning bakeries. There is something just so lovely about it.
For a variety of reasons, it is hard to conduct Piddington PLT outside of a city, so we jump at any chance we get to have grads do placements with regional community legal centres (CLCs).
Sophia Drazevic is completing Piddington PLT in 2022 and spent four weeks in Albany with the Albany CLC.
We thought this would be a great opportunity for Sophia to experience justice in a different dimension.
We asked her a few questions about her experience.
What were you doing at Albany CLC?
I sought the opportunity for a volunteer placement within a rural community legal centre for a month, volunteering five days a week. I am completing Piddington PLT with barrister John Fickling over an extended period, and it was encouraged and supported by both John Fickling and The Piddington Society that I would also complete a placement at a rural CLC.
The volunteering was not in order to fulfill the placement days of my practical legal training, but rather to further The Piddington Society’s values of access to justice, ethics and collegiality, and for me to experience the benefits and challenges of working within a rural CLC.
CLCs need support to continue their important role in both providing access to justice and training young lawyers. This placement provided the opportunity for me to give that support to Albany Community Legal Centre, while receiving training and experience in the work undertaken by a rural CLC.
Why did you want to go to Albany?
Albany CLC provides legal and advocacy services to the Great Southern community of Western Australia, from Wagin to Walpole, Lake King to Hopetoun, and everywhere in between. It is a large catchment area and as such it serves a broad and diverse community.
Albany CLC provides regular appointments in both Albany and Katanning, and periodic outreach to other locations throughout the region. Their services are directed to those community members who would not otherwise be able to access legal and advocacy services, either because they are ineligible for legal aid or because they cannot afford the services of a private lawyer.
Albany CLC assists people throughout the Great Southern region access their legal, tenancy and disability rights. They provide legal information and advice, undertake negotiation, court representation and conduct community legal education sessions. They also engage in advocacy to address systemic justice issues within our community.
Through the work that they do ACLC plays an important and pivotal role in the local community in breaking down barriers that prevent access to justice in the Great Southern region, it was for this reason that I wanted to volunteer in Albany.
What sort of matters were you dealing with?
Throughout my placement I was able to be involved in both the legal and advocacy work of Albany CLC.
I attended client meetings and court hearings both in person and by phone, as was required by either Covid considerations or distance where matters were heard in Perth Courts, drafted letters of advice and client statements for Criminal Injury Compensation applications, assisted with the creation and compilation of a client information pack for Disability Support Pension applications, and represented a client in their residential tenancy matter at the Albany Magistrates Court — which was my first time appearing.
As a part of my induction, I undertook Diverse WA Cultural Competence Training, the Community Legal Centres Association (WA) Induction and Risk Management & CLC Practice courses. These subtly differ from the model NSW Bar workplace and risk policies that apply to barristers’ workplaces. I was also given the opportunity to attend the WA Family Law Pathways Network 2022 Conference remotely, the CLWA Online CPD on Conflicts of Interest in CLC’s and Legal Aid WA’s LGBTIQA+ Inclusion Training.
What was the best part of being there?
The best opportunity I had whilst volunteering at Albany CLC was being able to follow a tenancy matter through from an initial meeting to negotiations with the other party, tenancy court appearances and achieving a resolution by way of orders of consent.
The Albany CLC Tenant Advocacy service provides information, advice and ongoing advocacy services to renters, boarders and lodgers. This includes people who live in a private rental, public housing, community housing or park home.
Being involved with every stage of the matter gave me the chance to exercise and improve a number of my legal skills, including client interviewing, negotiation, drafting by way of letters and emails and representing a client before a registrar of the Albany Magistrates Court.
As a law graduate it was brilliant to have the opportunity to be so involved and to exercise those legal skills, such an opportunity is one of the benefits of working within a CLC and is a part of how CLC’s provide such excellent training for young lawyers.
However, the best overall part of being at Albany CLC was working alongside such an experienced and impassioned team of lawyers, advocates, support staff and volunteers.
What are you still thinking about from experience?
Since completing my time with Albany CLC I have continued to think about the purpose and social impact of practicing law, particularly in the context of a rural community.
It is often so easy for us to forget the significance of the role we have as members of the legal profession on a day-to-day basis. This was something I was reminded of in some small way every day whilst volunteering at Albany CLC, an example being each time a matter was moved to circuit court in circumstance where there were difficulties for a client to attend court in Perth.
Enabling access to justice and the provision of legal advice to all members of our community regardless of their cultural, geographical, or financial position must be integral to the practice of law.
How has this informed your understanding of justice?
The experience of volunteering at a rural CLC provided me with the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of how geography and location act as barriers to justice.
There were often times when clients would be unable to attend meetings or court appearances as they did not have access to sufficient transport or were located too far from either Albany or Perth.
Though Albany CLC works hard to combat those barriers to justice in the Great Southern region, and are often successful in finding solutions, it highlighted the significance that a person’s location can have on their ability to access justice and their legal rights.
Additionally, the barrier to justice that an inability to understand legal language can be, and the importance of plain English, were emphasised when I assisted in the creation and compilation of a client information pack about the Disability Support Pension. The purpose of the client information pack was to assist members of the community to work out whether they would be eligible for the Disability Support Pension and what steps they needed to take before seeking assistance from a disability advocate.
Justice requires all members of our community to have access to legal information and advice that they are able to understand, this was made especially clear to me when considering the language that needed to be used in order for the information pack to be effective.
Piddington PLT is opening applications for our 2023 cohort in September.
