Clients utilising the Gold Coast Community Legal Centre services have certain rights and responsbilities. The Centre may refuse or cease provision of services if you do not meet your responsibilities.

Your Rights

When you seek assistance from the Centre you are entitled to:

• Quality services regardless of your ethnicity, religious beliefs, gender, sexual identity, social status, health status or disability
• Be treated with courtesy, respect and consideration receive accurate information / advice based on information you provide
• Ask questions to make informed choices and your own decisions about your matter bring a support person
• Ask for an interpreter privacy and confidentiality of your personal information unless disclosure is necessary in order for us to provide you with a service or is authorized or required by law or necessary for us to meet our obligations
• Provide feedback or make a complaint

Your Responsibilities

When you seek assistance from the Centre, you also have the following responsibilities:

• To treat staff, volunteers and other service users with respect at all times
• To not act in a rude, aggressive or abusive manner towards staff, volunteers or other service users
• To act in a way that does not put yourself, or any other person, at risk, or compromise any person’s safety
• To make an appointment and let the Centre know if you want to cancel or reschedule – your time slot can be given to someone else
• To arrive at your appointment on time
• To come prepared for your appointment (for example, having details of your matter ready, bring relevant documents and a list of questions you want to ask)
• Understand that information and advice provided by the Centre is based on the information you give us. It is therefore important that you provide complete, relevant, honest and accurate information.

The Centre may refuse or cease provision of services if you do not meet your responsibilities.

Other Important Information

• Your appointment is for a limited time only. All of your questions may not be answered in this time. You may have to come back to see us again or you may be referred to another service.
• Any work done by the Centre beyond your first appointment is by agreement only.
• The Centre provides this legal advice service as a limited service. The Centre may refuse or limit the extent of further advice given to you after the initial advice session.
• The extent of service that the Centre provides you will depend on the complexity of your problem, the level of demand on the Centre by other people for legal services, and the level of social and/or financial disadvantage.
• The Centre may provide you with legal advice about your matter, but the responsibility for progressing your legal matter remains with you.
• Unless otherwise agreed, the Centre will not act for you as your lawyer in relation to your matter.
• The Centre has limited resources. This restricts the services that can be provided and means that changes to services can occur without notice.
• The Centre does not usually provide court representation, unless in very limited circumstances, as set out in a Client Agreement.
• Sometimes the Centre cannot assist regardless of a person’s social or financial circumstances. Appropriate referrals are made where possible.

A copy of our Client Information Brochure may be viewed here.

During your appointment

We recommend you bring along to your appointment any paperwork you have that is related to your legal matter along with a list of questions you would like the lawyer to answer.

At your appointment, a qualified lawyer will give legal advice and assist you to understand your options. Our Social Work Service and an interpreter service are available. Law students may also assist.

Referrals may be provided to Legal Aid Queensland, private solicitors and other appropriate agencies.

Appointments are brief in order to assist as many people as possible.

The Gold Coast Community Legal Centre is committed to providing quality service. If you have a complaint about the quality or manner of our service, or if you are unhappy in some other way, please get in touch.

Please call us on 07 5532 9611 if you have any queries regarding the content on this page.