Who We Are

Women’s Legal Service Tasmania is a community legal service funded by the Commonwealth 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. 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. 

Women’s Legal Service Tasmania is committed to supporting, enhancing and upholding the safety, wellbeing and empowerment of children and young people. We want all children and young Tasmanians to be safe, happy and respected.

Our Board and Executive Leadership

  • Katrina Spark

    BOARD CHAIR

  • Sheldene Blackler

    BOARD TREASURER

  • Simone Zell

    BOARD DIRECTOR

  • Jane Fleming

    BOARD DIRECTOR

  • Madeleine Figg

    BOARD DIRECTOR

  • Caroline Self

    BOARD DIRECTOR

  • Sally Hayne

    BOARD DIRECTOR

  • Linda Ferreira

    BOARD DIRECTOR

  • Kristy Jenkins

    BOARD DIRECTOR

  • Yvette Cehtel

    CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

The history of a dedicated community legal service for women in Tasmania

By the early 1990s, women’s groups and organisations in Tasmania had long recognised the need within the community for women to have access to free and confidential, non-threatening legal advice, referral, education and information. In addition, there was a recognition for the necessity for reform in areas of law affecting women.

After extensive consultations between the Australian Law Reform Commission and representative groups throughout the country, the Commission produced it’s 1994 report entitled “Equality before the Law: Women’s Access to the Legal System”, identifying significant barriers women experience in accessing justice through the legal system. Statewide consultations enabled the Tasmanian Women’s Consultative Council to publish their own report in 1995, “Women and Justice: Tasmanian Women’s Access to the Legal System”.

Acknowledging the barriers women face accessing the legal system in Australia, in 1995 the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department issued the Access to Justice statement, expressing a commitment to removing these barriers. Through the subsequent National Women’s Justice Strategy, a steering committee was established by key stakeholders in the Tasmanian community to apply for funding and to develop a service structure and philosophy for a women’s legal service.

Women’s Legal Service Tasmania was incorporated on 30 April 1996, and was officially launched by the then Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Sue Walpole on 20 June 1996.

Originally employing two part-time solicitors, a part-time community education officer, and a part-time administrative assistant, the newly formed Women’s Legal Service Tasmania shared office space with two other community legal services in Macquarie Street in Hobart.

Moving to new premises in early 2009, Women’s Legal Service Tasmania had grown to employ four full-time solicitors with the support of a part-time financial officer and a part-time administrative assistant. Today, Women’s Legal Service Tasmania has offices in Hobart, Burnie and Launceston, employing solicitors, social workers, financial counsellors and support staff statewide, allowing us to assist over two thousand Tasmanian women each year.