{"id":4787,"date":"2020-01-09T07:43:06","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T07:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=4787"},"modified":"2020-01-09T07:43:06","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T07:43:06","slug":"new-free-legal-service-for-bushfire-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/01\/09\/new-free-legal-service-for-bushfire-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW FREE LEGAL SERVICE FOR BUSHFIRE VICTIMS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of NSW residents impacted by the State\u2019s devastating bushfires will be offered free legal help with the launch of the Disaster Response Legal Service NSW.<br \/>\nAttorney General Mark Speakman said Legal Aid NSW will operate the service, which will be available via its helpline 1800 801 529.<br \/>\n\u201cIn the face of the worst bushfire crisis in our nation\u2019s history, we have seen friends and neighbours come together to protect their communities and support those who have suffered terrible losses,\u201d Mr Speakman said.<br \/>\n\u201cI am very grateful to the private legal community for joining the recovery effort by standing together with Legal Aid NSW and community legal centres to offer pro-bono services for people facing legal issues as a result of the bushfires.\u201d<br \/>\nLegal Aid NSW CEO Brendan Thomas said a partnership between his organisation, community legal centres, the Law Society of NSW and the NSW Bar Association will provide invaluable help to people impacted by the bushfires.<br \/>\n\u201cIndividuals, households and business people can call a single hotline for legal advice from the Disaster Response Legal Service, from which they will be referred to an appropriate lawyer \u2013 whether they\u2019re from Legal Aid or the private legal profession,\u201d Mr Thomas said.<br \/>\nLaw Society President Richard Harvey said more than 200 lawyers and firms have\u00a0already\u00a0offered pro-bono services and encouraged others to follow suit.<br \/>\n\u201cIn the face of expected immense demand for legal advice in the wake of this disaster, our profession is on standby to provide support to our communities. The Law Society is honoured to be able to play a role in facilitating this,\u201d Mr Harvey said.<br \/>\n\u201cThis means fire-affected owners of farms and businesses who might not be eligible for Legal Aid will be able to access free quality legal advice to help them rebuild after the disaster.\u201d<br \/>\nThis announcement builds on the work of Legal Aid\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.legalaid.nsw.gov.au\/get-legal-help\/legal-help-for-victims-of-natural-disasters\">disaster response service<\/a>\u00a0that has been operating since 2010 across NSW. This service has already provided legal assistance throughout the bushfire season for people navigating insurance claims, tenancy issues, financial hardship, social security entitlements and employment issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of NSW residents impacted by the State\u2019s devastating bushfires will be offered free legal help with the launch of the Disaster Response Legal Service NSW. Attorney General Mark Speakman said Legal Aid NSW will operate the service, which will be available via its helpline 1800 801 529. \u201cIn the face of the worst bushfire &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/01\/09\/new-free-legal-service-for-bushfire-victims\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;NEW FREE LEGAL SERVICE FOR BUSHFIRE VICTIMS&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}