Equal Justice 平義社

• Equal Justice 平義社 an award-winning, community legal access charity in Hong Kong, working to reduce the poverty, physical and mental health illnesses and other hardships experienced by disadvantaged people who have legal problems but who cannot afford or otherwise access, legal information and support.

• Hong Kong has little to no publicly funded community legal centres ('CLC') and we are working to bridge this vital gap. Having access to legal support is a key driver of social wellbeing, enabling inclusive and peaceful societies, much like healthcare, welfare and education. It also drives economic progress.

• Globally, over 5 billion people have unmet justice needs. In Hong Kong, 1 in every 5 lives in poverty and, when last researched, 40% of people here had a legal problem, but almost 80% of them did not know what to do or where to go for help. As we see from our daily casework, the need for community legal support solutions is significant. We want to be part of the solution.

• Launched in 2020, our 4-year pilot has exceeded expectations. The CLC is overflowing, even without advertising. Our model references the OECD’s recommendations, our three interventions combining to effect systematic improvements in people-centred access to justice, as follows:

1. PREVENT: Free Community Legal Education attracted ~1,000 attendees over the last year culminating with Community Legal Education Month 社區法律教育月 2024, the events here and that we hope you will sign up for! This intervention directly drives case intake, under PROVIDE, below:
2. PROVIDE: A CLC where we provide free, face-to-face, tailored legal information and support - and referrals to lawyers and mental wellbeing counsellors who also help for free. So far, we have helped almost 2,000 people living at or below the poverty line to get the legal help they need. Typical legal problems include family matters, debt, employment and discrimination, access to healthcare, education and housing, immigration, criminal matters, personal injury, probate and online scams. Our clients are 50% women, 30% children, 15% men and 4% are impact organisations. Many clients are ethnically diverse people and those experiencing homelessness and abuse. Demand shot up ~40% in 2022 and by a further 40% in 2023. 2024’s first half caseload exceeded the whole of 2023’s. This intervention directly informs our systemic change interventions under PROGRESS, below, as well as the topics we teach at intervention 1. PREVENT, above:
3. PROGRESS:

• No-One Left Behind 絕不遺漏一人 - Community Legal Access in Hong Kong 香港社區法律服務 2024 saw the launch of the annual No-One Left Behind 絕不遺漏一人 Forum, fostering more/wider acceptance of the importance, status and social impact of having, and investing in, law as a social welfare service; attendees included foundations, NGOs, The Hong Kong Bar Association, The Law Society of Hong Kong and Pro Bono Singapore.

• CLIX: an online lawyer-NGO matching platform, in partnership with two other NGOs. Launched in May 2023, it has already matched ~200 requests for legal advice to lawyers willing to help for free. CLIX was a finalist in the 2023 ALITA Legal Tech for Good Awards. In June 2024, the inaugural CLIX Pro Bono Services Excellence Awards celebrated the most engaged pro bono barrister, local law firm and international law firms.

• PAT: Pregnant@Work: Our first, free, public, digital legal platform to help employers, employees and families to better manage pregnancies at work. It won the 2022 ALITA Legal Tech for Good Award and was part-funded by Hong Kong's Equal Opportunities Commission.

It’s never our work alone. We partner with over 200 lawyers, 100 law firms, barristers’ and in-house legal teams, as well as over 50 NGOs to get the job done. We are a referring agency under The Duty Lawyer Free Legal Advice Scheme. The Hong Kong Bar Association has granted us an exemption so we can directly instruct counsel for free legal advice.

Get in touch: hello@equaljustice.org