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General News

30 May, 2024

State funding extended for local legal service

ARC Justice will receive four years of ongoing funding from the State Government to continue providing a lawyer at the Maryborough Hospital and an allied health worker at the Maryborough Magistrates Court. ARC Justice is a local human rights...

By Maryborough Advertiser

Continued funding by the Victorian Government will keep ARC Justice services at the Maryborough Hospital.
Continued funding by the Victorian Government will keep ARC Justice services at the Maryborough Hospital.

ARC Justice will receive four years of ongoing funding from the State Government to continue providing a lawyer at the Maryborough Hospital and an allied health worker at the Maryborough Magistrates Court.

ARC Justice is a local human rights organisation that has provided free legal, health and social services for nearly two decades across the Central Goldfields, Mount Alexander and Loddon Shires through their Loddon Campaspe Community Legal Centre (LCCLC).

According ARC Justice CEO Damian Stock, the organisation ensures residents receive accessible regional support.

“The key legal problems that we see are around housing, family violence, child protection, family disputes and insurance disputes off the back of the recent floods,” he said.

“The community legal sector for the past two decades has been trying to work with partners to make sure lawyers are available where they are needed most.

“This investment of another four years of funding allows us to further embed within the community to ensure social workers and other allied workers know what our services are and how we can help people.

“We don’t want to be seeing people at court, we want to be seeing them much earlier and the best way to do that is working with our partners.”

The LCCLC has partnered with the Maryborough District Health Service (MDHS) to also train MDHS staff to identify when a patient has a legal problem, and how to refer them to LCCLC to ensure they receive support.

LCCLC also provides resources and local training to help the community understand the law.

Mr Stock said it is important for residents to know how their community lawyers can help.

“Commonly when someone experiences a problem they don’t often identify that there is a legal solution to that problem, and even if they do, maybe they don’t know where to seek help,” he said.

“Community lawyers are very practical in the use of the law — we really want to help people solve their problems at the earliest stage.

“We are publicly funded lawyers who are free to use and our job is to ensure people know what their rights are and how to exercise them.

“We want to be available deep within communities, we want people to know how we can help and we want to make sure it’s very easy to access.”

For more information, or to receive help from ARC Justice, visit arcjustice.org.au/programs/loddon-campaspe-clc

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