HUB Community Legal is committed to providing high quality services. We will work with you to make sure you get the best information, advice and support that is available and right for you.
We aim:
- To provide individuals in our community with free, general legal advice in: family law, including divorce, children, domestic violence, property, powers of attorney, employment, consumer, debt, traffic, motor vehicle accident (property damage only), civil (excluding personal injuries), neighbourhood disputes, youth criminal and advocacy, child protection and crime. The objective of our advice is to provide you with self-help strategies.
- To provide ongoing casework services to eligible clients. Representation is provided on a case by case basis.
- To develop and conduct community legal education activities from time to time on various topics.
- To promote social inclusion in our community by means of the HUB Neighbourhood Centre.
When you are in contact with our organisation, we will:
- Treat you with respect at all times
- Inform you of your rights and responsibilities
- Protect your personal information and only use it for the right reasons
- Involve you in decisions about the services you access and support you to have a say
- Support you to connect with other services if needed
- Tell you how to provide us with feedback on our service and how to make a complaint.
We ask that you:
- Act respectfully, courteously and safely towards other people using the service, and towards staff and volunteers
- Provide us with complete and accurate information about yourself and your situation
- Let us know if you have any particular problems or needs
- Be on time for your appointment. Late arrivals may not be seen
- Come prepared for your appointment. Bring relevant documents or have a list of questions to ask
- Tell us if things change or you cannot keep an appointment or commitment
- Provide us with feedback about our service and how we can work better
If we are going to help you, we must first check that we don't have a conflict of interest. An example of a conflict of interest would be if we have already helped the other party in your matter. If we have a conflict of interest, we can't help you but we will assist you to get legal advice elsewhere.
Agreement for legal advice
By attending our Centre for legal advice you agree:
- HUB will provide legal advice to you on the basis of the information that you provide. HUB's ability to give you useful legal advice/assistance depends on you giving HUB's staff accurate and specific information about your issues and all relevant documents.
- HUB will keep your file and documents in secure storage for 7 years after giving you legal advice/assistance (or for a child, 7 years after your 18th birthday). You can request a copy of your file. You give permission to HUB to destroy your file and documents after 7 years.
- HUB will provide you with legal advice about your problem, but the responsibility for progressing your legal matter remains with you unless otherwise agreed. HUB will not act for you as your lawyer in relation to your problem.
- HUB provides the legal advice service as a limited service. HUB may refuse or limit the extent of further advice given to you after the initial advice session. The extent of service that HUB provides you will depend on the complexity of your problem, the level of demand on HUB by other people for legal services, and your level of social disadvantage.
- HUB is required by law to keep all your information strictly confidential, unless you authorize HUB to reveal it or unless HUB is required by law to reveal it to prevent imminent and serious harm to another person.
We respect clients’ rights to privacy and confidentiality and comply with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988. We are required by law to keep all your information strictly confidential, unless you authorise us to reveal it to others or unless we are required by law to reveal it to prevent imminent and serious harm to yourself or another person.
You may request information from your file. In some cases we will require proof of identification in order to release the information.
Once your file has been closed, we are required to keep it for a period of 7 years. The file will be destroyed after that time, unless special circumstances apply, such as you were under 18 at the time of the advice or casework, or the matter involves a will or power of attorney.
Please contact the centre’s director if you wish to make a complaint about our handling of your private information. We will try to deal with your complaint as soon as possible. If you are dissatisfied with any action we then take, you can also make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commission at www.oaic.gov.au
