Juanita's Story

Juanita’s Story

Juanita had an ongoing dispute with a former friend, Noah. She had agreed with Noah to pay for works to be done on Noah’s property so she could place a live in container there, on the understanding that they would live together in the container, and that he would repay her for the container and works if their relationship broke down. Their friendship fell apart, but Noah refused to pay Juanita.

Juanita received extensive assistance and advice from LawRight over the course of about 18 months to help her understand her potential causes of action and the litigation process, and commence and progress Magistrates Court proceedings against Noah. Juanita had difficulty understanding legal concepts and terminology and was not very good at using technology. However, LawRight’s staff, secondee and volunteer lawyers spent many hours patiently advising Juanita in writing and over the phone, making sure to explain each step as clearly as possible and helping Juanita to fix up any mistakes she made.

We helped Juanita request a Magistrates Court settlement conference, and at the settlement conference the parties agreed to settle the matter, with Noah agreeing to let Juanita remove the container from his property and keep it. Juanita said she had tried to avoid going to Court as long as possible, and she was very pleased that the matter was finally over.

Thank you all very much for the long hours spent to help me.

by Tracey Press

Joanne's Story

Joanne’s Story

Joanne is an indigenous woman getting by on Centrelink payments, and her only asset is the house she lives in with her two children.

Joanne has difficulty reading and writing, so she was very confused when one day she received a letter and court documents from a lawyer.

Joanne tried to contact some law firms in her local area, but she couldn’t afford legal advice and nobody would help her. Joanne attended a drop-in advice clinic at another community legal centre. They couldn’t provide ongoing help, so they connected Joanne to our State Courts office.

It turns out that someone had sued her in the Magistrates Court for damage caused by a car accident. The Plaintiff had managed to get a default judgment against Joanne for $13,000 without Joanne’s knowledge and was threatening to start enforcement proceedings. Joanne couldn’t pay the $13,000 and risked losing her house. What’s more, she hadn’t even been the driver at the time of the accident – her brother had borrowed her car and was driving at the time of the accident.

Through several appointments with LawRight’s State Courts office, we helped Joanne to file multiple court documents to apply to set aside the default judgment and defend the claim against her. LawRight staff, secondee and volunteer lawyers helped Joanne understand the court process, drafted her court documents, gave her east to follow step by step instructions about what she needed to do to file and serve her court documents, and talked her through attending court hearings.

After Joanne put her defence before the Court, the Plaintiff agreed to completely drop the proceedings against her and pay their own legal costs..

by Tracey Press

Roberto's Story

Roberto’s Story

Roberto was convinced by his girlfriend to sign up for a loan with her company that he ultimately couldn’t afford to pay back. The loan company sold the debt to a debt collector, who started Court proceedings against Roberto for the outstanding amount, which was over $40,000. Roberto didn’t understand what was going on, so he didn’t respond to the Court proceedings, and a default judgement was made against him. The next thing he knew, Roberto was summoned to an enforcement hearing.

By the time Roberto came to the enforcement hearing, he had already given the creditor his statement of financial position and supporting documents. He wasn’t sure what the hearing was about or what he needed to do.

Roberto connected with LawRight’s EH Duty Lawyer Service on the day of his hearing. Our volunteer barrister gave Roberto advice about the enforcement hearing process and Roberto’s options to negotiate a payment plan with the creditor or otherwise challenge the underlying default judgement. At the hearing, the barrister argued that the enforcement hearing summons should be discharged since Roberto had given the creditor all the necessary documents and had done everything he needed to do. The Registrar ultimately discharged the enforcement hearing proceedings to an end.

Without our assistance, Roberto would have had to negotiate the enforcement hearing process on his own, without any knowledge or understanding of his rights and options for dealing with his debt.

Our EH Duty Lawyer Service was able to help Roberto finalise the enforcement hearing so he wouldn’t have to keep coming back to Court.

by Tracey Press

Armando's story

Armando’s story

Armando is a retiree and had drawn down on his superannuation to pay some lawyers to help him start Supreme Court proceedings against a company who had scammed him out of his life savings. Unfortunately, the lawyers had to stop representing Armando when his funds ran out. Armando struggled to keep representing himself in the proceeds because the legal issues in his claim were very complex.

The Court ordered the parties to attend mediation under the Scheme, and Armando was referred to LawRight. One of our panel barristers agreed to represent Armando at the mediation, where they negotiated an agreement for the defendant company to pay Armando some compensation and have the Court proceedings dismissed.

Thanks to the Scheme and the assistance we were able to finally resolve a stressful dispute that had been in court for three years.

by Tracey Press

Responding to disasters

Legal problems follow flood damage

Joan was triaged to Pro Bono Connect as she could not get help elsewhere. Joan owned her own home but then found herself in a financial hardship a few years ago. At the time, the client’s sister agreed to assist our client by jointly signing a mortgage for the property. Both our client and her sister were noted on the title as tenants in common. The sister made no financial contributions to the property. In the 2022 floods, the property was severely damaged, and a cash settlement was provided by the insurer. The sister spent the insurance money on other things because she had no need to live in the house. Joan was left with not enough money to carry out repairs of the property. She couldn’t afford to maintain the mortgage and now needed to sell the property, but the property remained damaged and not in a state fit for sale. Joan was unable to get help anywhere else, and came to LawRight’s Pro Bono Connect service, where we assessed her application and considered her legal options.

LawRight referred Joan to a law firm for full pro bono representation to resolve her challenges.

by Tracey Press

Marie's Story

Marie’s Story

Marie had experienced domestic violence for over 15 years and was unaware she was liable for a $60,000 debt. She didn’t know the creditor and suspected the debt was from a contract her ex-partner had entered into. She was also reluctant to provide bank statements to the creditor, as they might disclose her location to her ex-partner.

LawRight’s pro bono duty barrister negotiated with the creditor’s agent to provide redacted statements and appeared in court to explain why Marie wasn’t complying with the court summons. Marie felt relieved and safe.

by Editorial Team

Nick's Story

Nick’s Story

Nick is a young man with an intellectual disability who was influenced by an older associate to make a prank call while he was drunk. This led to criminal charges but no conviction was recorded. However, Blue Card Services (BCS) cancelled Nick’s blue card, even after learning that since the charge Nick received an NDIS package which supported him to resist outside influence and that he was not considered a risk to children.

Pro bono volunteer lawyers helped Nick prepare evidence to review the BCS decision at QCAT and Pro bono barrister, Clare O’Connor represented him at a compulsory conference. At the hearing HBA Legal provided full representation pro bono and instructed Christopher Wilson of Counsel.

by Editorial Team

Ji-Min's Story

Ji-Min’s Story

The service helped Ji-Min, who hired a car, which was stolen after her locked house was broken into and the car-keys taken. The hire car company started Magistrates Court proceedings for damages, arguing that Ji-Min failed to keep the car locked and the keys secure. She was told “she should have slept with the keys on her” and that if she didn’t propose a payment plan, costs would escalate.

Ji-Min tried to prepare a defence but found the task and process too complicated, so she reached out to LawRight. A pro bono lawyer helped Ji-Min understand the court process and the deficiencies in the statement of claim and assisted her to respond with a settlement offer. This was accepted and the matter was discontinued. This outcome resolved months of stress for Ji-Min and ensured that court resources wouldn’t be wasted.

by Editorial Team

Leila's Story

Leila’s Story

Fired for making a complaint

Leila is a woman in her 60s from Papua New Guinea who speaks English as her second language. She has no income and is being supported by her family. Leila was fired the day after making a complaint about her employment.

Leila did not achieve a successful outcome at the Fair Work Commission and approached LawRight for assistance commencing in the Federal Courts. We gave Leila general advice about commencing proceedings, which Leila did independently.

We arranged an in-person appointment for Leila with our volunteer lawyers to provide her with general advice about her claim and assisted her to prepare for an upcoming case management hearing. Due to the challenges Leila had faced self-representing to date, and Leila’s own view of her capacity to self-represent, we decided to place Leila’s matter with a firm.

Leila then received full representation from the firm. Leila is very grateful and provided us with this feedback.

“I cannot thank you all, the Staff and the Volunteers Lawyers for the tremendous work & support you all have given to me for 6 months, without a job and no income”.

by Editorial Team

Joseph's Story

Joseph’s Story

Joseph had a defence to the debt claim brought against him in the Magistrates Court, however he wasn’t made aware of the hearing date and a default judgement was made. When the creditor then petitioned for his bankruptcy, Joseph got advice from our Federal Courts office about how to set aside the default judgement but he was so overwhelmed by his money, personal and health troubles that he delayed taking action and a sequestration order was made. LawRight kept helping Joseph and, together with our Magistrates Court pilot service, he prepared evidence of his defence to the default judgement and the sequestration order was overturned on review.

by Editorial Team

LawRight stories

Juanita’s Story

Joanne’s Story

Roberto’s Story

Armando’s story

Legal problems follow flood damage

Marie’s Story

Nick’s Story

Ji-Min’s Story

Leila’s Story

Fired for making a complaint

Joseph’s Story