Southern Communities Advocacy Legal & Education Service Inc.

SCALES has dual purposes, to work in partnership with others to provide access to justice through holistic legal services including individual assistance, community education and systematic advocacy; and provide opportunities for clinical legal education programs that develop the skills and ethical practice of law students within a human rights framework. SCALES provides free legal services to people from the Cities of Kwinana and Rockingham who would otherwise not be able to access legal advice. We are funded to provide generalist criminal, civil and family law legal services through the Murdoch University Students Law Clinic where final year law students enrolled in clinical legal education units work in the legal practice under the close supervision of our experienced solicitors. Separately from the Student Law Clinic, we are funded to provide services to public, private and community housing tenants who have dispute with their landlord or real estate agent. SCALES also has a busy family and domestic violence practice where victim survivors of family and domestic violence are provided with assistance including risk assessment, safety planning, financial and wellbeing counselling, legal advice and representation on the diverse matters that impact on them. In the 2023/2024 year we provided 902 clients with legal assistance including 794 one off advices; 110 court and tribunal representation, 53 court representation in VRO Matters; 65 open files; 87 tenancy court duty services; 50 weekly tenancy court services; 7 community legal education session; 9 law and policy reform and social justice campaign; 1353 information and referrals.