What are community advice offices?

CAOs are non-profit organisations that offer free basic legal information, advice and services to people who are not familiar or do not understand their legal and constitutional rights, and who are marginalised through poverty, social circumstances and geographical location.

What services do they offer?

Free information, advice and support is available to people with legal, social and personal problems or challenges. For example

• legal
• housing
• debt
• family or other disputes
• maintenance
• employment
• social services

• other government services

What is a community-based paralegal?

A community-based paralegal is person who works at a CAO who:

• has basic knowledge of the law and its procedures
• knows about conflict resolution procedures

• has the necessary motivation, commitment, attitude and skills to help people and communities with their legal, human rights, administrative, constitutional and developmental problems, while at the same time empowering them to tackle these matters on their own in future.

How do they assist clients?

Community-based paralegals have the knowledge and experience to help people with legal and social problems. They use a variety of methods, other than using the courts, to achieve long-term, sustainable solutions to peoples’ problems. Using the courts can bring quick relief which is important in many cases, but this is not always the case. Court cases can take a long time to be finalized, the costs involved are often huge and the outcome for a person may be negative. Paralegals aim to deal with problems in a more holistic way, also referred to as Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).