LEGL 3009: Law for Social Work - ABE Community Legal Centre - Julia Case Study - Law Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

Assessment

Are you ready to write a detailed legal advice and should you be expected to? Probably not?

However, I am confident you could each work alongside a law clerk to produce something together. So, assume you are volunteering at the ABE Community Legal Centre to do ‘intake’ with prospective clients before they meet with a lawyer later in the week. It is your job to work alongside the law clerk to find out their story, identify legal issues and work out what documents you should get them to bring along to their appointment with the lawyer.

Assume the law clerk has written most of the memo. This is a long and detailed memo because it needs to be as legal decisions often turn on small details. However, don’t be intimidated by the length or the detail. Your job is just to fill in the gaps which means the structure is already provided for you and you only need to write about 1000 words. This 1000 words will be written by filling gaps as indicated by the text or by “XXX”.

ABE Community Legal Centre

Information provided by Client

Julia is 31. In her early twenties she was working as a law clerk and studying journalism and law. However, she was involved in a car accident which resulted in a traumatic brain injury and mobility issues.

We have noticed in discussions with Julia that she tends to get confused a bit and can be difficult to work with. Notes from her psychiatrist say she suffered significant trauma during rehab and reacts badly when she feels excluded from making decisions that impact on her. The notes also say she can get angry because she struggles to express her feelings. The notes also say that Julia can lose her train of thought and often seems to get confused.

Julia has been on an NDIS plan for a while focussing on her goals of independent living and community involvement. The support includes someone helping with shopping and someone helping her clean her house once a week. However, the support person changed recently and Julie is really angry about the change. The previous support person would have a coffee with her at the shops before they did the shopping and Julia is really angry that the new person says she can’t do this. Also, the new person says Julia has to help with the cleaning. Julia doesn’t mind doing the bathroom and dishes but hates vacuuming and hanging washing. However, the new person is telling Julia they have to do everything together so Julia can improve her skills. Julia says the new person is lazy and mean and calls her names. 

Julia has told us she stopped trying to do evening activities after she was hit by a drunk driver just over three years ago. She has been scared of going out at night since and has also found it very painful to walk around since the accident. Julia said she spoke to a lawyer at the time who told her to make a claim but she decided not to bother because it seemed like it would be too stressful. The pain did get a bit worse later and Julia went to a doctor and spoke to a lawyer again who said she might be able to get around $30,000 but she didn’t really like the lawyer so she didn’t go back to see the lawyer again. Julia says she is still really, really angry that the drunk driver got away with a very small punishment and she is having to live with the pain every day. She says she still has nightmares about the crash every few nights and some monetary compensation would be nice.

The main reason Julia came to see us is that she has decided she wants to get a job assisting at a zoo. This came about when she met a friend of a friend, Mandy, who provides disability consulting services. Mandy saw how much Julia liked Mandy’s pet lizard and has put together a detailed plan listing all the supports Julia would need to volunteer at Australian Reptile Park that is not far from where Julia lives. The plan they worked out together would involve Julia having personal one-on-one training in lieu of completing an apprenticeship that would involve the trainer assisting for the first 3 months to do the volunteer tasks with Julia and record videos showing the safe and appropriate steps for Julia to follow. Julia says by subsequently watching the video summary before completing the tasks, she would be able to safely complete the correct tasks each time. Julia would need to use a mobility scooter and a few more ramps would need to be installed to allow her to move safely around the zoo. The plan is quite detailed and has the support to the Zoo management. Julia is particularly excited that the plan includes funding for Julia to purchase her lunch daily at the Zoo Café so she can join with a number of other staff who regularly eat at the café to increase her community participation. Julia is also excited because she loves the advertisement for the Afikim dual seat mobility scooter which is much faster than the old mobility scooter Julia has that is requiring some repairs. Julia tells you that she convinced Mandy to write the Afikim scooter into her support plan by suggesting her existing scooter is a bit more broken than it actually is.

However, Julia is also very stressed because she says the Local Area Coordinator has told her that her goal of working in a zoo will be approved but what she wants is too expensive and will be refused. The Local Area Coordinator told her she should just go to TAFE to do a Certificate III in Captive Animals and then look for a job. Julia says that learning on the job with one-on-one support is what will work for her due to the way her brain injury and memory operates and she does not think she could succeed at TAFE or that anyone would employ her if she does not prove herself as a volunteer. She wants to know if what the Local Area Coordinator says is right or if it could be challenged.

The other thing Julia is really upset about is that her niece wants to stop her smoking and has told her she will lodge a financial management application so she can control her spending so she can’t ‘waste it all on cigarettes’. Julia says she would quite like to save some money by giving up smoking but does not really want to give her niece control of her money.

Issues

Introduction & Summary of Issues

During our discussions with Julia, we noticed Julia was often getting confused and the conversation was getting off track. We worked out the best way to communicate with Julia was to keep an agenda on the whiteboard and tick off points once they had been discussed.

Due to Julia’s brain injury and apparent confusion at times, we initially wanted to check that Julia had capacity to give legal instructions. We assessed Julia as having this capacity based on her answers to the following three questions:

We assessed Julia as needing legal advice on:

1. Whether she should seek compensation for being hit by a drunk driver?

2. How to resolve the issue with her support worker?

3. Whether she can challenge any refusal by the NDIS to give her the requested supports?

4. What to expect if a financial management application is lodged?

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