Supporting those affected by bushfires in SA.

Appointments can be online or in person, by arrangement.

Book an appointment.

Preparing for your appointment

You can bring a friend, relative or partner to the appointment with you, or if you need assistance with interpreting.

Make sure you have all relevant documents, including court documents, contracts or quotes, receipts, letters, photographs, witness statements or any other documents that relate to the issue.

We can provide free legal advice in relation to a broad range of matters.

If you are involved in a dispute we can help you with:

• Understanding the relevant law;
• Options for resolving your dispute;
• Referring you to other relevant agencies; or
• Managing your own claim.

If you want your matter to go to Court or it is already in Court, and the financial amount in dispute is not more than $12,000, we may be able to help you with:

• Things you might have to do before lodging a claim with the Court;
• Preparing Court documents; or
• Explaining Court procedures.

We do not:

• Take over management of your claim for you; or
• Act as your lawyer or represent you in Court.

Our legal advice services are cost-free. You do not need to pay to meet with us. You do not need to pay for our legal assistance.

We do not pay any costs associated with search fees, court or other dispute processes. This means that you must pay for any of your own costs, including Court filing fees and costs of obtaining evidence or preparing for hearing. 

All information that you provide to our Centre is treated as confidential. 

We can only give legal advice once we have met with you. Please do not seek legal advice by email before you have made an appointment.

Our Centre has been operating as a free legal advice service since 2011. It is a high quality model of fully integrated clinical legal education providing a transformative experience for law students and assisting clients from the community with a wide range of legal matters. This was built on an earlier collaboration in 2009-2010 at the Adelaide Magistrates Court with Adelaide Law School.

Our Centre mirrors the environment of a small private law firm, with experienced solicitors closely supervising student interns to enable the Centre to provide free advice to members of the community across a range of legal issues. Our Centre operates as an innovative ‘hub and spoke’ legal service. Interns and supervisors travel from our legal office ‘hub’ to our ‘spoke’ outreach Clinics where interns meet and interview members of the public. Since 2015, the Centre ‘hub’ has been located in purpose-equipped office space situated in Flinders University’s southern commercial premises.

Our Model

Clinical Legal Education at Flinders Law School was developed in its present form in 2011. In order to provide high quality internships for students studying the topic “Social Justice Internship” for credit in their law degree, we established the Flinders Legal Advice Clinic in that year. It transformed into the Flinders Legal Centre in 2019 and is now the placement internship for students studying the topic “Law in Action”.

Our Centre, while operating completely within the University, is recognised as a community legal centre under the Legal Practitioners Act 1981 (SA). Since 2011, our Clinic has operated all year round, offering students a range of enrolment opportunities. Our Interns (who comprise law students enrolled in LLAW 3302 Law in Action together with law student volunteers, and occasional graduate volunteers) commit to involvement in the Clinic for at least a semester and also voluntarily cover non study periods.

The students at our Centre find that helping people with their legal disputes is an excellent learning experience for their future career. They take their responsibility very seriously, and act professionally at all times.

Our vision and ongoing commitment is to a high quality model of fully integrated clinical legal education providing a transformative experience for student interns.

Our Centre has traditionally operated as a ‘hub and spoke’ legal service, with our legal office ‘hub’ being supervised by a senior solicitor. Interns and supervisors travel from this ‘hub’ to our ‘spoke’ outreach Clinics where interns meet and interview members of the public under the supervision of the FLC staff (being experienced legal practitioners). Interns then returned to the ‘hub’ office to conduct relevant research and prepare written advice to clients under the supervision of the Clinic Supervisor. Our outreach Clinics were located at a neighbourhood community centre (where clients present with a variety of issues including aged persons law, debt, small business and neighbourhood disputes); at our suburban campus (where issues include housing, traffic, and debt); and on-campus (with a wide variety of matters, including residential tenancy, debt, traffic, employment, small business, commercial and start-up related matters).

Since the changing conditions brought on by the coronavirus pandemic we have moved to providing our services solely online through video-conferencing sofware.  All interviews and legal advice work continues to be supervised by experienced legal practitioners.

The teaching and learning experience provided by the Centre has been recognised by a Flinders University Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and a Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, both awarded in 2014. In December 2014, we received a University Teaching and Learning Innovation grant to develop resources to support intern resilience. We presented research about our Centre context:

• At the 2012 Higher Education Research Group of Adelaide Conference;
• At the International Journal of Clinical Legal Education Conferences in Brisbane in 2013; in Toronto, Canada in 2016; in Newcastle, UK in 2017; in Melbourne in 2018; in Bratislava, Slovakia in 2019; and at Northumbria University in 2021;
• At the Global Alliance for Justice Education Gage in Bandung, Indonesia in 2019;
  
• At the Australasian Law Teachers Association Conferences at Bond University in 2014 and in Melbourne in 2015;
• At the National Wellness for Law Forums in 2015 in Canberra, in 2016 in Sydney, and in 2017 in Adelaide;
• At the 2015 Higher Education Research & Development Society of Australasia Conference in Melbourne; 
• At the 2015 Nottingham Centre for Legal Education Conference in the UK; and
• At the 2022 European Network for Clinical Legal Education in Brescia, Italy.

Recognition and support from the wider community is evidenced by grants from the Law Foundation of South Australia and Student Services Amenities Fee funding from Flinders University since 2012; and in-kind support currently from the City of Marion.

We receive referrals from the Legal Services Commission of South Australia, Southern Community and Limestone Coast Community Centre, as well as other Community Legal Centres, private practitioners and the wider community.

Got queries? Need assistance? 

Contact us by email or leave us a voice message on +61 8 7421 9985.