Law Week Community Service Awards
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Annetta Kucharska receiving her LW Community Service Award. Shown here with Irene Sims, Mayor of Auburn City Council and John Burgess, General Manager of Auburn City Council. |
Catherine Piper, Deputy Registrar at Belmont. Pictured with Michael Talbot, Assistant Director General, Courts & Tribunal Services. |
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Background
Law Week was established in New South Wales to promote greater understanding within the community of the law, the legal system and the legal profession. Law Week is an incorporated company administered by a board, which is comprised of the leaders of the justice system in New South Wales. Over time, Law Week will grow to become a coordinated, nation-wide event.
Budding lawyer’s essay secures a valuable insight |
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Road show takes legal advice out west |
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Targetting teenagers with a message on safe driving |
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Speak-easy |
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Walking for justice |
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Clued up on the law for older people |
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When recovery of children needs quick action |
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Neighbours and the law for Mandarin speakers |
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Investigating the other side of the story |
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Bonnyrigg High School student Michael Ly, who is planning for a career in the law, will spend a day with high-profile criminal lawyer Greg Walsh OAM as his prize for the winning paper on drink driving in the 2009 Law Week Arrive Alive Essay Competition. The Motor Accident Authority’s Arrive Alive program works with the Law Society to improve understanding by young drivers of the legal consequences of driving offences. The 2009 essayists were asked to write a story of up to 2,000 words studying the legal, financial and social consequences of breaking the law onthe road. Michael’s winning essay is available at www.arrivealive.com.au, as is that of runner-up Vanessa Leung from James Ruse Agricultural High. PHOTO: WESLEY LONERGAN 
After a launch in Dubbo, the Legal Services Road Show rolled out across western NSW from Coonamble to Nyngan, providing free advice on debt, discrimination, fines, insurance and child support. Legal service providers participated in open days at courthouses and delivered talks, raising awareness of available free legal services. Legal Aid also visited Aboriginal communities in Collarenebri, Goodooga, Lightning Ridge and Moree to publicise the 31 May deadline for claims to the Aboriginal Trust Fund Repayment Scheme for wages, pensions and child endowments that were held in trust by the NSW government until 1969, and never repaid. Participants at the Coonamble courthouse (l to r): Elna Martin of Victim Services, clerk of Coonamble Court Cathy Pickering, Maryann Hausia, field officer of Western NSW Community Legal Service, graduate solicitor Stephanie Hope, Wendy Elder of Law Access, Monique Gorham, case manager of the Aboriginal Family Wellbeing and Margaret Short, solicitor for the Aged-Care Rights. Service (TARS). PHOTO: MICHAEL GRAHAM
The Wollongong Law Society attracted a packed house of local school students for its Law Week Hypothetical “Targetting teenage drivers” with a panel of speakers comprising (l to r) adjudicator Ms Jane Healey, criminal lawyer Stewart Holt , forensic pathologist Dr Grant McBride, Judge Paul Conlon, Police Superintendent Kyle Stewart, organ donation coordinator Miriam Nonu, and Veronica Apap, a court reporter for the Illawarrra Mercury. PHOTO: GREG TOTMAN
It’s hard times and the tough got going at the Young Lawyers Golden Gavel Breakfast. Guys‘n’dolls, in a Chicago-like recession sweep, learnt the lessons from the crims and sharks and looked to put a bit of team spirit, if not ice, into the legal firm. Wear more cocktail gear and putthe firm back in firm advised Tom Payten of Allen Arthur Robinson (far right), who won for his piece on “Underbelly, with thenew money came a new breed ...”; and Anthony Jucha, of Jucha Legal, speaking to “Women lawyers do it better” was already there, pipped for first place by the length of his purple earrings. Justice Rachel Pepper, who has newly joined the Land and Environment Court, charged the ‘Four Seasons Ten’ for noxious emissions and put them on remand, but they’re an irrepressible bunch and it won’t take long for them to bust out. Look out, world.
Hundreds of lawyers and supporters strode off together simultaneously in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne in the Law Walk for Justice organised by the Public Interest Law Clearing House (PILCH) during Law Week to raise funds for pro bono causes. In Sydney, walkers completed a fivekilometre course through the Domain and around Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, with Commonwealth Attorney-General Robert McClelland, NSW Attorney General John Hatzistergos, NSW Supreme Court Justice McClellan and NT Supreme Court Justice John Nader in the lead peloton. The walk was expected to raise more than the $11,500 gathered in 2008. PHOTO: ERNEST FRATCZAK
The Blue Mountains Law Society called in local experts to address its Law Week seminar focusing on issues of interest to older people. Speakers brought the audience up to date on powers of attorney, enduring guardianship, advance-care directions, wills, accommodation issues for elders, crime against older people and strategies for preventing it: (l to r) Blue Mountains Law Society president Darryl Browne, who chaired the free legal information seminar, Senior Constable Melissa Rosevear, Mark MacDiarmid, principal solicitor with the Elizabeth Evatt Community Legal Centre, and John Sheehy, an Accredited Specialist in wills and estates from Hazelbrook. PHOTO: BRAD BRIDGER
“Recovery Orders for Parents” is a plain English self-help kit explaining what a recovery order is and who can apply for one. Launched by Legal Aid NSW in Parramatta and other venues across the state during Law Week, the kit explains the laws about moving, and finding and recovering children, some of which are very complex but might need quick action. Legal Aid’s Director of Family Law Kylie Beckhouse (right) said the publication, launched together with an online resource for lawyers, would be invaluable, particularly for people in rural areas, where it could sometimes be difficult to get free or affordable legal help. The lawyers’ kit is available by following the ‘publication’ link on www.legalaid.nsw.gov.au, while the resource kit for parents can be ordered online or by calling 9219 5028. PHOTO: PETER SOLNESS
Neighbours and the Law was the topic of an information seminar for Mandarin speakers in Chatswood, which aimed to enhance understanding of neighbourliness, and the rights and responsibilities involved. Solicitor Clifford To discussed with attendees how to resolve issues. Among the topics covered were problems with trees, noise, access to a neighbour’s land, development, apartment living and dispute-resolution mechanisms. To was also available to certify copies and witness statutory declarations for participants. PHOTO: MOSHE ROSENZVEIG
Media types were asked to consider ways to address the negative public perception of the law and lawyers at a Law Week breakfast seminar hosted by the City of Sydney Law Society. Exploring the relationship between the media and the law in a disucssion of interest to both lawyers and the wider community were James Eyers (below), legal editor of the Australian Financial Review, Laura McIntyre (right) senior reporter from Lawyers Weekly; and the Law Society’s media adviser Maria Ianotti (far right). PHOTOS: TOM WILLIAMS
