Access to Justice and Community Law Centres

Abstract

Community Law Centres deliver substantive access to justice and can be distinguished by their key features, particularly their focus on meeting the needs of vulnerable people in their communities. Knowing the history of community law centres, in New Zealand helps to explain why and they developed to deliver access to justice in the manner that they did, and how they came to be subject to government regulation and funding. Since their establishment, a growing body of research has accumulated supporting the need for community law centres and their service model. The latest review of community law centres took place alongside the legal aid review. The aim was to get better value for money for the taxpayer. This review prompted changes to the legislative framework in which CLCs exist which would allow for significant changes to the way that the government funded these services. The purchase framework proposed to replace the current contracts that expire in June 2013 does contain such changes. It is reassuring to see that the model is driven by a substantive conception of access to justice that aligns well with CLCs and their origins. The proposed model itself is clearly informed by the same research referred to above but some elements may potentially weaken community law centres by weakening their ties to the communities in which they operate.