Legal Plus

A recent New Plymouth survey highlighted too many people with legal issues cannot not afford legal help, and that too many don’t get early wellbeing or other support to deal with the accompanying stress. Feel familiar, don’t panic. At Legal Plus we are here to change this. The cost of legal services and limited accessibility/ capacity of Legal Aid and Community Law means many people realistically can’t access justice. The survey reinforces that alongside legal issues, people are stressed impacting their whānau, hauora (wellbeing) and finances –making things a whole lot worse. The majority of our survey respondents told us they knew someone who had not accessed the legal system in the last 3 years because of cost. 100% said they would be more likely to use legal services if they were more affordable. People also tell us their whānau, their friends and their work colleagues about the stresses they have alongside these issues. 57% of the survey respondents knew someone with legal issues t

At Legal Plus and the Accessible Justice & Wellbeing Trust we believe, in a fair Aotearoa New Zealand, that everyone deserves to get the affordable, accessible legal and wellbeing help they need. Pioneering affordable law and wellbeing support is not easy (or cheap!). Fortunately the challenge is resonating across business, community wellbeing organisations and individuals with generous commitments of time, materials, service discounts and expertise. Today’s blog acknowledges this awesome commitment from Taranaki individuals, community organisations and businesses. First thank you to the community organisations, participants at social justice and wellbeing workshops from the social services, legal, iwi and health communities, those leading justice and criminal system reform and the individual social/ health workers and defence lawyers at the coal face. Your amazing insights of the everyday pain people experience provide the objective (but heart rendering) evidence to back