• Recent statistics released by Statistics SA show that 52% of the people in rural areas are unemployed and 32,2% of households in these areas depend on government grants as their main source of income. Many of these people cannot deal with the enormous difficulties they face without access to the justice system.

Even today, in the second decade of democracy in South Africa, access to justice remains something that the majority of South Africans cannot even dream about. The reasons include the level of poverty and associated marginalisation particularly in the rural areas, the lack of infrastructure and State capacity, the scarcity of legal skills in impoverished areas, illiteracy and ignorance of what the Bill of Rights and the Constitution entitles people to.

In order to give effect to the potential transformation that the Constitution seeks to bring about, to provide everyone with the right to have any dispute that can be resolved by the application of law decided in "a fair public hearing", and to fulfill the requirements of many Acts of the democratic parliament that imply or explicitly endorse the need for legal aid in civil matters - legal advice in civil matters is essential. It is the cornerstone of access to development and democracy in South Africa.

In many cases the LRC  has been the only organisation able to provide the basic assistance  - which makes the difference between justice and the total lack thereof for many.

The Access to Justice has the following objectives:

• To increase the access by the poor and marginalized communities in South Africa to the legal system
• To educate and bring knowledge of the law to as many people as possible
• To support advice offices to assist them to better operate on their own by providing legal information
• To provide training to paralegal workers including those from advice offices to enable legal advice and education to communities
• To empower rural communities so as enable them to access the transformative benefits and protections inherent in the Constitution

Ultimately the intervention of the LRC gives impoverished people and communities an opportunity to access and fight for their constitutional rights under the democracy of South Africa.

Front desk service
Through our front desk service we provide assistance to walk-in clients and are often able to help through the referral of matters to law clinics, advice centres and relevant government and non-government agencies. The Access to Justice project also assists in the identification of cases with significant potential impact on the law and justice in area that the LRC focuses on.

Key issues
The project deals directly with a wide variety of issues - including pension and insurance inquiries, consumer protection cases, unemployment insurance claims, workmen’s’ compensation claims and children requiring placement.

Networking and advocacy
The LRC seeks to increase the sharing of information and networking with the range of organizations that are involved in public interest law and paralegal work. Together with other NGO’s, Community Advice Centres, the Legal Aid Board and university law clinics, the LRC has formed a number of informal clusters through which to assist people who seek legal advice. Such approaches also assist with regard to referrals.

Monitoring and the utilisation of all opportunities for advocacy to improve various aspects of governance through legislative/regulatory improvements has been a cornerstone of the LRC's approach since 1994. A number of such interventions come to light and are pursued through the work of the Access to Justice project. This included participation in the consultation processes that led to the finalisation of the National Credit Act.

For some time, the role of paralegal practitioners within the justice system has been an area of much debate. Some of the paralegals within the LRC were directly involved in the production and distribution of a newsletter “The Paralegal Voice" first published in September 2005. The aim of this newsletter is to enable paralegals to be updated with developments that affect them and "to facilitate a process of more interaction by and between advice offices for the improvement of services they render to communities".

Advice offices
Through the project, there continues to be interaction with advice offices in certain areas. It has been recognised that there is a need to establish a common approach to the way in which Advice Offices are serviced and to consider the possible impact of the establishment of the Justice Centres and other government service/information centres on their work.

One of the project objectives is to strengthen advice offices by providing them with training and legal support. The interaction with advice centres includes telephonic contact that is sometimes followed up with an exchange of documents on the basis of which specific support can ensue.

The LRC has experienced a reduction in the number of files brought back to our offices for further attention. This is mainly as result of the dire financial situation that many of the advice offices find themselves in. In some situations advice office staff do not have telephones, fax machines or even stationary. These unfortunate circumstances directly affect those rural areas where these centres offer the only possible access to free legal assistance.
 
Workshops and training
One of the project objectives is to strengthen advice offices by organising training which is conducted either by LRC staff or individuals with whom the organisations works closely. Some examples of these are:

• Administration of Estates, Curatorship and the Guardians Fund
• HIV and AIDS
• Paralegal organisation and practice

A network of paralegals in the Pretoria area in which some LRC paralegals have been involved, the 'Pretoria-Odi-Moretele-Brits Cluster' has an with the Pretoria Justice Centre’s High Court Unit, in terms of which up to ten delegates are sent from the cluster to attend courses facilitated by members of the judiciary and other legal practitioners.