Legal Aid brings up its half-century in Tasmania
On May 2, 1974, Senator Lionel Murphy, the former federal attorney-general and High Court judge, opened Tasmania's first Legal Aid office in Burnie.
Fifty years on, much has changed, but much remains the same in the offices of Tasmania Legal Aid.
We found an Australian Women's Weekly magazine from 1974 - featuring a front cover photograph of a male lawyer in very snazzy flared slacks and a polyester business shirt.
The feature was an introduction to the services of the "shop front" lawyers and focused on the importance of strategic outreach of services.
At that time these services were provided primarily, if not exclusively, by male lawyers. TLA now has a workforce made up of 82% women. Tasmania Legal Aid is still focused on equality before the law and access to justice regardless of a person's financial means and location. For example, when Legal Aid began, the Burnie office operated the first 'dial a lawyer' system in the world.
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This provided clients the ability to phone the office and receive legal advice over the phone for simple legal issues. Still in operation, it's now referred to as the Advice and Legal Service program, and fields more than 9000 calls a year.
The Burnie office also provided outreach services to the West Coast in 1974 on an as needs basis. Now we do extensive outreach right across the State including to King and Flinders Island.
While Legal Aid continues to grow and change into the future, but our founding principles of equity, access to justice and client focussed services will remain the same. The depth of TLA's services today are reflected in our last annual report, where we:
Kristen Wylie is the Tasmania Legal Aid director