YouthLaw Aotearoa

When you’re dealing with all the things that come up in your life, you can often come across situations that you don’t know how to deal with. If you’re a young person you might be especially unsure about whether what’s happening is OK, or what you can do about it. You might be worried that people won’t take you seriously because you’re young.

If you’re under the age of 25, you can’t afford a private lawyer and you can’t get legal aid, YouthLaw Aotearoa is here to make sure you can get legal help. YouthLaw can tell you about how the law affects you, and explain to you your rights and options in different situations – all for free!

YouthLaw is available for young people all over New Zealand. There are three main things that YouthLaw does:

• Legal information – YouthLaw gives you information about your rights in different situations, through things like this app, or our website.

• Legal education – YouthLaw goes into places like schools or community groups to teach groups of young people about the law.

• Legal services – YouthLaw provides qualified lawyers who can give you advice about your specific situation, and sometimes help you along in doing things to change it.

YouthLaw is one of many Community Law Centres all over New Zealand that give free legal help to people that can’t afford it. Most of the other Community Law Centres are for the people who live nearby. Because YouthLaw is for young people all over New Zealand, we usually communicate with you by the phone. If you’re 25 or over, or if you want to meet with a lawyer in person, you can go to your local Community Law Centre instead.

You can find your local Community Law Centre at http://www.communitylaw.org.nz/your-local-centre/find-a-community-law-centre/.