Equal Justice 平義社

Award-winning community legal access charity helping disadvantaged people to solve their legal problems. Not a law firm; we do not give legal advice. + Referring Agency: The Duty Lawyer Service Free Legal Advice Scheme. + The Hong Bar Association exemption: we can instruct barristers directly for legal advice. + HKSAR Chief Executive policy address consultation participant 2023, 2024. + Signatory: EOC’s Racial & Diversity Inclusion Charter; Mental Health Workplace Charter. + Membership: World Justice Project; Namati. Hong Kong has limited publicly funded, community legal information and advice centres and so we work in partnership with the legal profession and others to bridge this vital, 'legal welfare' gap. We believe that access to public legal support drives social wellbeing and inclusion, enabling economic progress, much like public healthcare, welfare and education. Launched on 1 July 2020, our pilot has exceeded expectations. Our community legal centre is overflowing, even without advertising. Demand shot up ~40% in 2022, by a further 40% in 2023 and by over 40% in 2024. It’s never our work alone. We partner with over 100 law firms and over 50 NGOs to bridge access to justice gaps through 3 impact streams: +PREVENT: Free Community Legal Education: attracting ~1,000 attendees; culminating in Community Legal Education Month 社區法律教育月 2024. +PROVIDE: A Community Legal Centre where we provide free, face-to-face, tailored legal information and support, and referrals to lawyers and mental health counsellors. So far, we have helped 2,000+ people living at or below the poverty line with legal problems involving, eg, family law, employment, discrimination, education, benefits, housing, immigration, personal injury, healthcare, probate and online scams. +PROGRESS: Digital innovation; systemic change: No-One Left Behind 絕不遺漏一人: Community Legal Access in Hong Kong 香港社區法律服務; CLIX (award finalist) and PAT: Pregnant@Work (award-winning).