HCLS is a community organisation whose aims are to foster community awareness of the law, to make the law more equitable and accessible to the public, and to provide free legal information, advice and referral to the general public in southern Tasmania.
HCLS is one of over 160 community legal centres in Australia. The service provides the general community with free legal advice and referral to Legal Aid, other private practitioners and other community resources. The service also conducts legal education programs and works for law reform in areas affecting the general community.
The Hobart Community Legal Service Inc. started in 1985. Their purpose is to empower people, especially the socially-disadvantaged, to have full access to our system of law and justice and to community resources, particularly in order to facilitate greater autonomy in pursuit of justice.
HCLS’s Mission Statement says that their aim “is to ensure that all members of the community in the Southern Tasmanian region, especially the disadvantaged, have easier access to a fairer and more equitable legal system”.
HCLS carries out its mission by pursuing the following objectives:
- to provide accurate legal advice and information, and appropriate representation and referral, to their clients
- to promote community awareness of the Service and provide legal education to members of the community
- to encourage, within the community, involvement in law reform processes and to pursue, in concert with other community organisations, law reform to achieve social justice
- to ensure that they operate in an efficient, equitable, professional and cost-effective manner, with due accountability consistent with relevant ‘best practice’.