About us

Mission statement

The Illawarra Legal Centre Inc assists people to realise their legal rights. We promote social justice for people who experience social and economic disadvantage in the Illawarra Region and surrounding areas, with a particular focus on those who experience social and economic disadvantage.

Ideology/philosophy

The Illawarra Legal Centre Inc is part of a group of community based legal centres throughout NSW and the rest of Australia. The Illawarra Legal Centre Inc has a philosophy of making law accessible to those who are disadvantaged in our society due to a lack of finances, education, English language proficiency and those people generally considered in poverty. The Illawarra Legal Centre Inc recognises that poverty and other forms of disadvantage are about access to power – power over resources, information, relationships and decision making. The Illawarra Legal Centre Inc along with other community legal centres attempts to address this lack of power in relation to the law.

The Illawarra Legal Centre Inc believes in approaching matters in a non-adversarial way and to use litigation as a last resort but acknowledges that for many matters the only appropriate form of resolution available is through the court system.

Legal Centres define three major areas of their work, those being Casework, Community Legal Education and Law Reform.