Programme
Legal Aid Guidance
Case triage, counselling, and referral for people who have a rights problem and no clear idea where to take it.
Available in: English, Telugu, Hindi, Urdu
People rarely arrive at our desk because their legal position is unclear. They arrive because they have been passed between offices for months and nobody has told them which one is actually responsible.
What the desk does
A session begins with a chronology. What happened, on what date, to whom, involving which office. Copies of everything submitted and everything received. Once the account is documented, three questions get answered: which authority holds the statutory mandate, what that authority is empowered to decide, and what evidence the person already has.
The output is a written summary the visitor takes with them, and — where one exists — a referral.
What the desk does not do
It does not provide legal advice, and it does not create an advocate–client relationship. ACHRC does not guarantee representation before any court or tribunal, and we say so at the first meeting rather than the last. Where formal representation is needed, we point towards the statutory legal services authority and the panels that exist for exactly this purpose.
Being clear about this is not a disclaimer exercise. People who have been given false hope by someone else are among the most difficult to help.
Coming to a desk day
Bring a dated chronology, copies of your submissions, and any replies. Keep your originals. If you have nothing written down, come anyway — building the record is often the most useful hour of the process.
Confidentiality
Case files are confidential. Details are disclosed only where the law requires it, and anything we publish about an assisted matter is anonymised unless the person gives informed written consent.