River was a young mother of three dependent children and was also a victim of family violence perpetrated by her former partner. She had been renting her premises since 2015, had limited family support and was solely relying on Centrelink payments.
Michaela was a single mother with three severely autistic children. There had been major water damage to the rented property 12 months prior to the tenancy terminating.
RHOP visited a registered rooming house in the Melbourne’s South East where upon no answer at the door, the team called out through the back gate in the hope that someone would hear them.
‘Cindy’ and ‘Alan’ were both aged 16. Cindy left her family home to be with Alan, moving into his room at his family’s home. Alan became violent and controlling, hitting, punching and biting Cindy, withholding her phone and physically preventing her from leaving, on several occasions. When police were called, Cindy was scared, and she did not co-operate with police.
Minh was waiting, alone, at the Magistrates Court all morning. When our duty lawyer approached her at lunch time to see if we could help, Minh advised that she doesn’t speak English, only Vietnamese. Our lawyer, who also speaks Vietnamese, took her to registry and discovered that no one had known she was there. The court had also failed to book an interpreter for Minh.
We assisted Aisha, who was born in the Middle East, and who spoke almost no English. She and her husband were married for 17 years and had two children aged 13 and 16 years. The parties moved from the Middle East to reside in Australia eight years ago and became Australian citizens.
In a parenting matter which took PCLC Continuity Program lawyers over three years to resolve, final parenting orders were ultimately achieved for a vulnerable client seriously affected by persistent family violence.
Michael was 13 years old and presented with a diagnosis of PTSD resulting from witnessing family violence perpetrated by his father on his mother. He was also an only child and estranged from his father, who himself had a criminal history. Michael was charged with one count of driving unlicensed after taking his mother’s car for a joy ride with friends.
Saeed was charged with exceeding the speed limit. His pregnant wife appeared unwell and he drove her to her doctors, who recommended that she be immediately admitted to the nearest emergency department. On route, Saeed was detected exceeding the speed limit by 31km/h. Saeed’s wife was diagnosed with a serious medical condition. Shortly after this time, she gave birth to twins a month prematurely. As a result of the medical condition, she slipped into a coma and tragically passed away three months later.
Peter is an intelligent and well-educated man, whose issues with alcohol had undermined any chance he had securing work in his chosen career. When Peter first presented at PCLC, he had a number of outstanding fines and criminal charges associated with his alcohol use. At that time Peter was homeless and living in his car.
