MELBOURNE — The Fitzroy Legal Service (FLS) has had it's funding slashed by $160,000.
The legal centre has served the local and wider community for 30 years, doing criminal and family law cases, providing legal education and leading social justice campaigns. The funding cuts will close the case work practice, which provides free legal advise to the most disadvantaged people, leaving 400 people per year without access to a legal service.
FLS spokesperson Belinda Lo told Green Left Weekly that FLS is the only Victorian legal service with funding for a case work practice, something that the Victorian Legal Aid Commission, the funding body, wants to change. Lo added that six legal services in NSW have a funded casework practice and a 2006 review recommended that all NSW legal centres receive this funding. For more information, visit http://www.fitzroy-legal.org.au.