What is the difference between Legal Aid and CLCs?

• Legal Aid is a government-funded agency that provides legal assistance to people who cannot afford a lawyer. It has strict eligibility criteria that are based on your financial situation, the seriousness of the matter and individual circumstances. Legal Aid can only be applied to certain areas of law and runs on a contributions system. This means that at a certain point in your case you may have to start paying something towards your legal assistance.
• Community Legal Centres have a more generous mandate and eligibility criteria but they may only be able to assist you if you have been rejected by or are not eligible for Legal Aid.
• Legal Aid work is mainly giving legal advice and representing people at court or in a tribunal while CLCs only represent people at courts or tribunals in very limited cases.