2. NAT10861002 Advocate for clients in need of legal assistance

2.1. Clients in care, custody or in need of assistance

There is a range of different circumstances where you may need to help or advocate on behalf of your client. Depending where you are working your client will have different needs and you will need to use different types of advocacy skills to assist them. Your client may be an adult or a juvenile. As we have seen in previous units, the client interview is a really important step to help you to identify exactly what your client needs, what law is relevant and what steps you need to take to assist them. 

 

You may need to provide assistance across a range of legal practice areas. For example: 

  • Care and Protection Law
  • Criminal Law
  • Elder Law
  • Immigration Law
  • Family Law
  • Domestic Violence Law 
  • Disability or Anti-discrimination Law 

Your client may be in care or custody or in need of assistance. In each different context your client will need legal advice and you may be asked to advocate on their behalf. Different needs arise depending on the client’s circumstances so you need to think about exactly what they need and what laws apply to their situation. 

 

What exactly do each of these terms mean?