Lawyers Acting Out

The offices of Brisbane Family Law Centre at Albion on a recent Friday night were commandeered by a number of shady characters and famous divorcees. It was all for a good cause though in the shape of a charity event to raise much needed funding for a not for profit community organisation, SANDBAG (Sandgate and Bracken Ridge Action Group), specifically in their counselling of victims of domestic violence.

Sandbag, amongst other things, offers such counselling free of charge to families affected by Domestic Violence. These counselling services have long been run by Heather Oakes who is longstanding advocate against domestic violence. Organisations such as Sandbag offer those in our community who are suffering from domestic violence essential support through individual counselling and rebuilding programs.

Heather is presently running, free of charge, the Brisbane North Fax Back Program for domestic violence- or as Heather calls it, SLURP (Sand-Link United Referral Pathways). Through this program Heather receives notifications from local police of their attendence at domestic violence incidents in the community. Heather then makes contact with these families and offers counselling and other follow up assistance through Sandbag. At present this program is receiving over 30 calls each month. Despite the high level of community need for this program it remains unfunded and is reliant upon the voluntary support of Heather and her organisation, Sandbag.

Almost $9,000  was raised on the night through a charity auction, raffles and of course the generosity of party guests. Guests were entertained by way of a pantomine featuring many well known family law solicitors and barristers. The pantomine was based on the popular Underbelly mini-series, with of course various underworld figures, dodgy solicitors, corrupt judges and the like, singing and dancing their way to trial.

Brisbane Family Law Centre intends to continue to support organisations such as Sandbag by making this an annual event but "Underbelly- Keep it in the Family" will be a hard act to follow!

The stars of the night included the Queensland Solicitor General playing the role as Mr Capitano. Mr Selfridge played Mr Mocktrial. Colin Forrest played a tattooed Jason Moron. Ms Carew of Counsel (who won the Oscar on the night) played Babs, the mother in law. Robin Slade-Jones of Counsel played a great Fairy Godmother. Andrew Evans of Counsel played the narrator. Solicitors filled the other roles. It was a fantastic show and great fun was had by all, while raising money for a great cause.

Colin Forrest

For more information about BFLC visit the BFLC website: www.bflc.com.au