Community-based paralegals: Practitioner's Guide and Country Examples

Paralegals can be a powerful tool of justice, helping to resolve disputes and empower individual clients and whole communities. Living and working in the communities they serve, community-based paralegals combine their knowledge of the formal justice system with mediation and community education to help the poor and marginalized address their justice problems.

Open Society Justice Initiative's Community-Based Paralegals: A Practitioner's Guide provides a how-to guide with information on all aspects of establishing and operating a community-based paralegal program, from assessing a community's needs to training paralegals and resolving justice problems. The book includes case studies, training curricula, client intake forms, and other materials drawn from paralegal programs in Cambodia, Hungary, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, and elsewhere. It should be useful for anyone who wants to start a new paralegals program, improve an existing one, or learn more about paralegals and the legal empowerment of the poor.

Two recent country examples:

• Sierra Leone: A video featuring a Timap for Justice paralegal showing the importance of her work.
• Guyana: A new paralegal system has been launched in Lethem to administer an informal system of justice, resolving minor conflicts.

For additional reading on this subject see the "Paralegal Assistance" section of the Digital Library which contains links to resources on how to effectively establish and operate a system of paralegal assistance based on past experience in a variety of countries.