Legal help
Right after the injury I knew there is something very wrong with me and I cannot cope. I have learned term trauma only much later. I had some mental health problems in the past and I did not hesitate to look for help. Only it proved to be way more difficult than I expected. Some of potential ways I have tried many times. Only at the end of 2024 I found out that it seems the legal aid organisations that I contacted are controlled by Law Society, no surprise I did not get any help.
Here is a list of avenues I tried and my experience with them.
| Name | Link | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Community Legal Centers NSW | https://clcnsw.org.au/ | Use to find contacts of community centers in your area. |
| Legal Aid NSW | https://www.legalaid.nsw.gov.au/ | Does not provide any help related to personal injuries. |
| Financial Right Legal Centre | https://financialrights.org.au/ | Has some useful information on their website. They might not be able to help you with personal injury claim. They do provide information on the phone, but I was not able to reach them (every time reached waiting time limit). |
| Social Justice Clinic Macquarie Law School Macquarie University | https://www.mq.edu.au/faculty-of-arts/departments-and-schools/macquarie-law-school/engage-with-us/social-justice-clinic | Private law firm specializes only in family law |
Redfern Legal Centre
Forums, groups
I found 2 Facebook groups. I found them useful and most of people try to help. The activity is not very hight, but it make sense to try:
- Free Legal Support Group (Australia) https://www.facebook.com/groups/695283527287903,
- Legal Help Australia ◉ Advice, Referrals, Anonymous Q&A https://www.facebook.com/groups/1616728571701352.
Some comments were toxic and there is bias support for Law Society NSW, OLSC and insurance companies. You need some patience to get through toxicity.
- https://www.reddit.com/r/AusLegal/new/ - active, but very toxic. With correct expectations you may find useful advice even if it will be 1/10 comments. For example I have seen poster attacked for causing troubles by going to HR to ask for help when he find out that that manager was feeling suicidal due to bullying and stress at work, or another poster attacks for asking advice about health problems caused by bullying.
- https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladviceaustralia/new/ - less active, but a bit less toxic.
Tip: you need to manually change order of posts and comments. As bullies like to gather in gangs you will drowning in toxic comments otherwise and miss genuine advices.
Useful legal information
English is not my first language, and I am not used to legal terms. I am also used to different legal system than the one in Australia. So, I been struggling with many legal terms. Here is explanation of some of them.
- Without prejudice - term often used in negotiations to allow some freedom of expressing them self without the danger of it being used against them: a guide to without prejudice.
- Advocate’s immunity unavailable to legal practitioner who allegedly exaggerated expertise - looks like interesting article. I have not read it yet but might be useful.