Service Directory

The Courts’ case management pathway aims to ensure that 90 per cent of family law cases are resolved within 12 months of filing.

Matters follow a nationally consistent case management pathway.

The first court event takes place within six to eight weeks of filing. Where it is safe to do so, parties will be required to undertake mediation or other dispute resolution within six months of filing, with the aim of resolving their dispute earlier in time and reducing the financial and emotional stress of litigation.

If the parties are still unable to settle, they will be sent to trial which is to commence, where possible, within 12 months.

Greg Smith & Co can provide assistance for basic matters relating to family law, whether it be for parties that are married or in a de facto relationships, including:
Obtaining a divorce
Providing advice following the end of a marriage or other relationship
Negotiating and entering into an agreement (Binding Financial Agreement) or court orders (by consent) to enable the property of a relationship that has broken down to be divided

Jennifer acts as Counsel in Criminal defense, Civil and Family Law matters.

She has special interest in child protection, mental health, disability and discrimination cases.
Jennifer also has a particular interest in appellant support generally and for human rights issues such as 'indefinite detention' and 'wrongful conviction'. Opinions and briefings in this and other criminal areas are offered.

Republic Chambers is the home for the Prisoners Advisory Legal Service, which offers clinics for inmates looking for assistance with parole applications.
In partnership with University of Tasmania Law School and Greg Barns, volunteer students attend both clinics and her chambers in order to provide valuable resources that encourage prisoner's rehabilitation.

Jennifer offers a dispute resolution mediation service, with the view that litigation should become the last resort. She is accredited with the Resolution Institute.

The Law Society of Tasmania has two major functions. The first is that of regulator of the legal profession of the State of Tasmania. The second is to provide services to its members to assist in maintaining high standards of practice in the Tasmanian legal profession.

The services offered to Members of the Law Society of Tasmania are designed to assist the provision of timely and effective delivery of legal services. Hence, the Society has focused on areas such as education, indemnity insurance and risk management.
The Society also provides a counselling service to members and a range of other personal and practice related benefits

We provide a free, accessible, primarily generalist legal service promoting self-help, law reform, community legal education and participation to the most vulnerable in our community.

As a registered charity, we seek to achieve a legal system that is accessible to all persons regardless of social or financial circumstances.

We value access to justice through assisting those within our community who are of straitened financial circumstances or who are in any way underprivileged, vulnerable, disadvantaged, helpless, distressed or impoverished irrespective of gender, culture, race, age, sexual preference, disability or ethnicity.

Attorney-General’s Department. We operate a free and statewide service, with offices in Hobart, Burnie and Launceston.

From our office in Hobart we provide confidential and free legal advice and referral to women right across Tasmania through our telephone advice line. Our highly skilled legal staff are able to provide advice and referral on all legal matters including family law, family violence, civil and criminal law, as well as estate and property law. In addition to providing telephone advice, we are at times able to take on casework for clients throughout Tasmania who need representation with their legal matters.

Our Burnie office has been operational since April 2016 after Women’s Legal Service Tasmania was chosen to open a specialist family violence unit in the north-west of Tasmania as part of the Australian Government’s response to rising family violence in our communities. Our Burnie office provides legal information, advice and support on any legal matter to those clients in the north-west of the state who are experiencing, or who have experienced, family violence.

Our Launceston office opened in March 2018, and is funded in part as an extension to our Burnie office and in part by the Tasmanian Government to provide advice and support to women in the north of the state who are experiencing, or who have experienced, family violence. Women from northern Tasmania are able to contact our Launceston office to make a face-to-face appointment with one of our solicitors.

Women’s Legal Service Tasmania are also able to provide community legal education sessions and workshops throughout the Tasmanian community. We produce legal information publications such as brochures, booklets, factsheets, and websites, and strive to make the legal system more accessible and responsive to the issues affecting women through our law reform work.

Women’s Legal Service is managed and staffed by women who are sensitive to the diverse needs of individual women and groups within the Tasmanian community. For legal advice or assistance, you can contact us through our telephone advice line, or by calling our Burnie office directly if you are in north-west Tasmania, or our Launceston office in the north-east. For all other information or enquiries, please call our Hobart office.

Women’s Legal Service Tasmania