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Non-legal assistance in legal processes

A few of the homeless participants in this study said that if they had a legal problem, they would go directly to Legal Aid NSW or to another legal service they were familiar with. However, this and other studies suggest that homeless people are, at least initially, more likely to turn to non-legal services or workers for advice when they have a legal problem. Consultations and SAAP data indicate that homeless person’s services, particularly SAAP services, are a key link between their clients and legal assistance. As well as providing food, shelter and medical attention, some of these organisations also provide advocacy and legal information, advice and referral services. In this study, caseworkers and service providers were found to play a vital role in assisting homeless clients to identify their legal issues, obtain legal assistance, engage in legal processes and manage the outcomes. Specific tasks included referring clients to legal services and, in some cases, accompanying them to appointments, ‘interpreting’ the advice provided by lawyers, assisting clients to gather relevant documentation, assisting people with clothing for court, providing court support, explaining court processes, and providing accommodation so people could be released on bail.

To assist caseworkers in adequately supporting homeless clients with legal problems, service providers in the current study said that they wanted access to timely legal information, legal advice and relevant legal ‘education’. The aim would not be to equip these workers to ‘advise’ clients, but to support clients into and through legal processes. Workers also stressed the significant benefits of interagency collaboration for legal service providers, non-legal service providers and, most importantly, their homeless clients. This is consistent with directions highlighted in current policy and research.

However, some homeless people have no contact with SAAP services. This group may rely on family and friends or more general services such as doctors or health services, schools, tenancy/housing workers or Centrelink for support. Given this, if these general services are to be equipped to appropriately refer clients to legal assistance services, the message given to these agencies must be as direct and simple as possible. One option for consideration is the wide distribution of the LawAccess contact telephone number. This involves increasing general community awareness of the service as well as directing information to the types of agencies and services discussed in chapter 7. Another option is to consider telephone access points to LawAccess, in places such as Centrelink waiting areas. LawAccess can provide legal information and advice by telephone, and link people with local face-to-face legal services. An added benefit in using LawAccess as a referral point to legal services is that it may cut down the number of times a person is referred from place to place, reducing the prospect of referral fatigue.