Organising Legal Support
When planning any political action or protest, whether it is a full-scale blockade of a military base or a street stall, consider and plan for police responses or legal consequences.
Well planned and effective activist legal support can not be crucial in:
– helping a campaign withstand legal or political repression, and
– opening up greater political space for the wider movement and for activists in the future.
Asserting and defending our legal rights in one campaign helps other activists and campaigns.
The law can be intimidating. It is essential that people organising protest actions learn about relevant laws early in the organising process.
On this page:
- Positive group culture
- Media and documentation
- Legal Observer Teams
- Planning Support and Solidarity
- Legal Trainings
- Public Forums
- Legal Implications
- Liaise with authorities
- Provide legal information
Positive group culture
When activist groups and communities actively build a culture of providing legal information, support and solidarity, individual activists and groups/collectives will be better supported to undertakeTo promise, in the course of legal proceedings, to do or refrain from doing an act. An undertaking is enforceable by attachment or like an injunction. More direct actions (which may involve civil disobedience or breaking the law).
For example, if it becomes the norm that:-
- people know their legal rights,
- people know not to talk to the police or pass on information which might endanger themselves or others to the police,
- groups and collectives adopt strong ‘security culture’ protocols,
- it becomes standard to write a legal phone number in permanent marker on peoples’ arms prior to a protest, and
- people attending a protest would be prepared to act as a legal observers –
– the stronger and better collective support and solidarity can be.
In 2010 ‘Switch off Hazelwood, Switch on Renewables’ organised a day of protest outside the Hazelwood coal-fired power station in Victoria’s la Trobe Valley.
A Legal Support Team coordinated various pre-protest events including direct action trainings, a legal briefing, a police liaison meeting, and created a handout on new laws targeting ‘critical public infrastructure’ which increased penalties for protests at coal fired power stations.
On the day of the protests the Legal Support Team set up a stall, handed out legal information, made public announcements about legal information, and were available to answer peoples’ questions.
In the end there were no arrests, no police violence at the protest, and no ongoing need for legal support.
However, many activists who attended stressed how glad they were that a legal support team was there and available. They said it made them feel more able to take part in the protest action.
Having a legal support team present worked to distribute legal information, inform people about their rights, and recognised the need for legal support and for solidarity in activist movements.
Media and Documentation
Photo and video coverage of the action can help to deter police violence and provide valuable evidence later.
Remember: the footage you record can be evidence that cuts both ways.
If accurate, the footage will reflect the conduct of all participants at an action, e.g. police, activists, violent and nonviolent.
Your photos of an action, especially when distributed strategically on the internet and social media can provide a useful counterpoint representation of the protest to some of the biased reporting that is common in the mainstream press.
Also see: Surveillance of activists; Political surveillance; Social media
Be aware of what is and isn’t appropriate to document through video or photo. For example, it is generally not appropriate to photograph a meeting between activists unless you have explicit consent.
If activists are undertaking actions with which they don’t want to be linked or identified it is also inappropriate to take photos or video
Think about what the purposes of the photographs you are taking are.
For example, if your aim is to document police violence or harassment (if there is any) make sure you focus on that.
You may want to focus on taking photos of police attending the protest who are not wearing proper identification.
Documentation aims might include:
- deterring police brutality;
- to take pictures of the licence plates that you want to record;
- to take pictures of the police, both plain clothes and uniformed so they can be identified later (if there is misconduct or brutality)
- to take pictures of those who seem to be counter protesters and there to frustrate the groups right to protest;
- to take pictures of any “incidents”, including arrests.
These can be useful for media and in court. Stand back and get shots of the whole area and general layout. This helps in court too.
When in public, you can take any person’s picture without their permission. The camera just has to be visible.
It is an offence take photos of a persons genital or anal region without their knowledge and consentAgreement to an action or arrangement. See also: informed consent. More. This is commonly called ‘up-skirting’. Depending on the circumstances, the maximum penalty is 3 months to 2 years in prison.
The camera is a powerful weapon. At rallies and demonstrations they are essential.
But note that police can act violently in order to seize cameras or tape. Violent assaults on photographers or independent media by police do happen.
Plan to prevent police from seizing your camera, disk or tape. If you have a useful image, keep it safe from police and make it available to those involved in the Legal Support Team.
However, when there are many cameras it is possible to get pictures of these “accidents” where cameras are destroyed or of the police officer posing his palm for a photograph.
Preserving the photographic evidence for the court is critical. The main problem is that of “continuity”. In the court it is necessary to show a continuous chain of possession of the film, negatives and prints. This must be done to counter any suggestion that these items have been tampered with.
It is useful to develop a relationship with people in independent media so that you can have access to the film if needed.
Note that police often have their own camera units (‘evidence gathering team’) present.
Make sure people in the action know that they will be filmed so they don’t mistake an independent media person or legal observer for a police camera operator.
Note that you will generally have to call to court the person who took the image if you want to use it as evidence.
Legal Observer Team
Legal or human rights observers are:
- an independent third party,
- who observe police behaviour,
- with the aim to keep police accountable for their actions.
Legal observers often:
- document police behaviour and tactics at protests,
- hand out legal information,
- hand out legal support phone numbers,
- are a visible presence,
- write incident reports describing police violence and misbehaviour, and
- compile reports after the event.
As observers, they are better able to objectively and independently describe events.
Legal Observer Teams should aim to widen the political space to take protest action by:
- monitoring violence and harassment by police and other authorities, and
- acting in a way that better enables movements to take the actions they want to take.
Legal Observers can be helpful to:
- create a feeling of safety,
- allow people to make informed decisions about their actions,
- and observe police tactics and promote accountability.
If a Legal Observer Team is not possible, arrange for people to video, record and take notes during the action.
Download and use the ArrestTo take into custody. More Watch Report Forms Located on this website under Support team resources.
Also see the:
Melbourne Activist Legal Support: Legal Observers Handbook
National Lawyers Guild ‘Legal Observer Manual’.
A broad range of other resources for Legal Observers, collated by Melbourne Activist Legal Support
It is arguably inappropriate for Legal Observer Teams – who are committed to working in political support and solidarity with protesters – to monitor and quasi-police the actions of protestors.
The police and the apparatus of the state dedicate plenty of resources to the profiling, surveillance and criminalisation of individuals and movements that work towards progressive social change.
The role of legal observers (or human rights observers) is to observer, monitor, and report on police and other agents of the state impacting the right to protest.
Independence is key to this role. Police liaisons are a part of the activist group, they are not independent of the group. Because of this, Legal Observers cannot also act as police liaison.
It is vital that a Legal Observer Team has discussed and is clear about their role and mandate, especially about whether their role is to monitor the behaviour or police, of protesters of both or of others (for example: far-right counter protesters).
A political philosophy to legal support will generally insist that the role of Legal Observers is to monitor the behaviour of the police and that their role is not to police or to monitor protester behaviour in anyway.
Legal Observers are needed to:
- provide handouts on legal information,
- provide protesters with phone numbers for legal support,
- track arrests and policing incidents,
- and collate information for ongoing legal support and or arrestee solidarity.
Legal Observers should encourage protesters to write legal support telephone numbers on their arms.
This may be a mobile number activated by the legal Support team for this particular protest, a lawyer organised by the protest organisers, or the number of a supportive criminal law firm or community legal centre.
Even participants who do not intend to get arrested or feel they will not get arrested should be encouraged to do this. There are two main reasons for this –
- Firstly, police responses may be unpredictable and arbitrary and it is not uncommon for people who had no intention of being arrested (even bystanders who were not part of the protest) to be arrested.
- Secondly, if some participants have the number written on their hand and others don’t it may cause police attention to be drawn to people with the number on their hand, on the assumption that they intend to engage in more militant or confrontational tactics.
It is useful for Legal Observers to identify themselves as such by wearing signs or distinctive clothing such as fluro safety vests with ‘Legal Observer’ stenciled on the back.
Make sure each Legal Obersver is equipped with a camera (or phone that can take pictures), bust cards (wallet cards with basic information on rights when arrested), clipboard, relevant arrestTo take into custody. More tracking sheets, blank paper and pens.
Make sure you have debriefing organised – the role can be very draining, as Legal Observer may be witnesses to police violence, but the role requires them to keep doing.
In such situations it is important to have a group debrief to acknowledge how shocking and upsetting some of the things that were witnessed and observed may have been.
For very distressing protest events, it could be good to ask someone who wasn’t there to do check-ins and organise the debrief.
Planning Support and Solidarity
A protest or action is not over until the court process and consequences for everyone are finished. For example, the action isn’t over until:
- the last fine is payed,
- court ordered community work finished,
- people are released from custodyControl; e.g. when arrested and not free to leave; formerly, care and control of a child. More, or
- civil actions against authorities are concluded.
Be aware of:
- the time frames this will involve,
- the expertise this requires,
- the financial resources this would take, and
- planning for this long-term support.
For example, when planning a protest that involves mass disobedience, plan for the fact this is likely to involve significant number of people being charged, going to court and having to pay fines.
As organisers, you should consider if you may need to organise fundraisers (to pay people’s fines or legal fees) early in the planning.
Even if the action is small and involves only a few people, good activist legal support and back up is still important.
Be clear about what legal support your group can and can’t give. Make sure this is explained clearly to the individual activists, groups or movement you are providing support to.
If the action you are planning is large then arrange for a Legal Support Team well in advance.
See also: Set up a Legal Support Team.
It can be useful to involve progressive lawyers and activist legal workers as an integral part of the planning process for protest actions and campaigns.
If there is a chance of community legal centres being utilised at a later date, it may be a good idea to meet with your local centre and inform them of the campaign or action.
Involve legal workers as early as possible, not only after people have been arrested and charged.
If possible, organise a lawyer to be guest speaker at an organisational meeting so that the group as a whole can ask questions.
Or a legal training could be organised in the lead-up to the action. See Trainings for activists section.
Don’t expect lawyers to do this for free or as a matter of course, and even if they do, don’t expect the advice to continue. However you may be able to negotiate an arrangement that will cost nothing for your group.
From this may arise interest from individual lawyers who may choose to help with the Legal Support Team. However if nothing else this will cover the introductions between the lawyers, legal centres and activists.
Remember: lawyers have a duty to the court/ the administration of justice and must advise you against breaking the law.
Sometimes, a non-lawyer who is knowledgeable and experienced in protest law is just as good as having a lawyer present.
A basic knowledge of the legal system can be useful for planning campaigns and actions.
For more information see the DIY Legal Research section.
Generally, lawyers are hesitant to give legal advice before a protest action. This is because everything is hypothetical and they ultimately must advise you against breaking the law.
If you are able to get legal advice, try to find answers to these questions:
- Whose jurisdictionThe ‘jurisdiction’ of a court is the authority of that court or tribunal to hear certain matters brought before it. This is based on factors such as the area or law, the amount of money claimed, or the geographic area. More is the protest site under?
- Will the State or Federal police attend?
- Which police command will be involved?
- Is the protest site on public or private land?
- If it is private who is the owner?
- Is the protest on Commonwealth land?
- What Acts or legislation are relevant to the action you are planning?
- Are there local by-lawsFormer name of local laws (q.v.). More that may impact?
- What potential charges could be applied to those involved in the action?
- What are the maximum and likely penalties for these charges?
- What is the history of these charges being laid by police at similar actions?
- What sort of civil litigationCourt proceedings in civil matters (q.v.). A litigant is one of the opposing parties (q.v.) in a civil proceeding. More is the campaign or organisation vulnerable to?
- What sort of legal support can be arranged for activists involved?
Once you have all this information it is possible to plan for activist legal support.
Legal Support Teams are organised groups of activists, legal students, legal workers and lawyers who provide a range of activist legal support work before, during and after the action.
It is crucial for a Legal Support Team to define for themselves and be very clear about what their role is and what support they can offer.
Legal Support may involve:
- Providing legal advice about action options.
- Running legal information sessions and legal trainings prior to an action (as part of pre-protest direct action trainings or as stand alone events).
- Operating a legal phone/email for activists to contact the legal support team with questions or if they are in police custodyControl; e.g. when arrested and not free to leave; formerly, care and control of a child. More.
- Training, coordinating and debriefing with Legal Observers to attend the protest.
- Collating photos and videos from protests (primarily in order to identify improper police action).
- Media comments about legal issues arising out of a protest.
- Assistance with pro-active legal strategies to assist a group or movement (ie. Seeking injunctions to allow a protest to go ahead).
- Providing legal information to activists in custodyControl; e.g. when arrested and not free to leave; formerly, care and control of a child. More, potentially co-ordinating lawyers for bail applications if necessary.
- Helping find legal representation for people arrested at a protest or providing appropriate referrals to supportive criminal law firms, Victoria Legal Aid or a community legal centre.
- Taking evidence (including statements) from people who experienced or witnessed inappropriate police behaviour at protests.
- Providing legal information about possible options available to people if they experienced police violence or harassment, including potentially providing information, advice, referrals or representation in relation to civil actions.
The scope of what a Legal Support Team is able to do depends upon the capacityThe ability to understand and give legal consent to an action or arrangement. More and the expertise of the group.
The demand for legal support also varies depending on the scale of the action (both in terms of people and amount of time involved), how complex or controversial it is, and the wants and needs of the people on the ground.
Arrange Legal Trainings
Hosting legal workshops or trainings prior to a protest or action is a useful way to empower and upskill activists.
These workshops can work well as a stand-alone event, or as part of a longer direct action training.
Make sure your knowledge of the law is current and up-to-date. Never assume that the law hasn’t changed. Make sure that handouts or information are still current.
You should have clear and well-structured workshop outline. A workshop outline for legal trainings is available on this site Legal training for activists.
Arrange Public Forums
Forums can be a useful way to firstly educate participants about the legal issues relevant to a campaign.
They can also work to build links with the legal community and other organisations and individuals who may be able to support your campaign.
Additionally, they can be useful to raise awareness about any changes in the law affecting your right to protest and wider issues around freedom of assembly and civil liberties.
If one of the aims of your forum is to get new people involved, think about where and when you hold it to make it most accessible.
It may be useful to film sections and upload these to your website or have a hybrid in-person and online meeting. Be conscious of security protocols for online meetings.
If you are aiming to build links make sure you have sign up sheet available for volunteers or supporters to leave their contact details.
Prior to Climate Camp the Justice Tracks Collective held two forums titled ‘Lawyers, Protests and the Front Line of Climate Change’ with a lawyer from the Environmental Defender’s Office and an activist from Newcastle. There was one in Sydney and one in Newcastle.
The aim of these forums was primarily to build links with people in the legal community and build wider support for Climate Camp.
Prior to the Switch of Hazelwood protest the Legal Support team organised a forum ‘A Stifling Climate’ to talk about recent changes to the law which increased penalties for direct action at ‘critical infrastructure’ in order to deter protest at coal fired power stations.
The forum was designed to discuss and demystify the legal changes and also to politicise the stifling of dissent they represented.
Legal Implications
Knowledge is power. Having knowledge of the legal system and the legal implications of particular causes of action can better equip campaigns to achieve their goals.
Just because a particular protest option has legal implications, shouldn’t automatically rule that option out.
Decisions about what actions to take or what political strategy to pursue should not only be based on what is legal and what is not legal.
There are many very important and validLegally binding (q.v.) or effective. More reasons why campaigns and activist will choose to pursue strategies and causes of actions that are likely to have legal repercussions.
There is a long and proud history of civil disobedience across the world.
Activists and protest organisers sometimes ask people providing legal support:
“what are we allowed to do?”
“what actions should we take?”
“what should we do?”
Lawyers and independent Legal Support Teams can’t advise people to break the law or decide on what they should (or shouldn’t) do.
Lawyers and Legal Support Teams can provide information about the law and what the possible legal consequences may be.
With this knowledge, activists and protest organisers are the only people who can make these decisions.
Decisions about how, when, and where to protest are political, tactical, and strategic decisions.
Liaise with authorities
If appropriate, you can liaise with authorities.
Many actions depend on high levels of secrecy for their success and prior liaison with police (or local councils) is not possible. If your action relies of secrecy be aware of issues around surveillance and infiltration by police.
Some activists have strong political standpoints about any sort of communication with police (and other authorities, like local councils) because of how police liaison can be manipulated by police to control a protest.
Other activists say that prior police liaison can help to minimise the risks that:
- police will overreact to an action,
- police will sue violence, and
- violent counter protesters will attend or be able to reach the group.
For some activists, prior disclosureGiving particular information to another party as required by a contract or legal process. More is a strategy aimed at creating dilemma situations for the government.
The police liaison role can serve to:
- provide an approachable contact person for police,
- build trust and gain important information,
- gain negotiating time and space, and
- allow negotiation on minor details of the action without disrupting the entire protest.
Many actions that are publicly promoted, such as marches and rallies, will not be secret and prior police liaison may be undertaken to negotiate details such as:
- traffic control,
- sound systems,
- or where arrested people may be taken.
If you do decide to liaise with police before an action, ensure that you speak with the relevant ‘Operations’ commander or person with the highest authority over the protest.
Always make sure at least two people undertakeTo promise, in the course of legal proceedings, to do or refrain from doing an act. An undertaking is enforceable by attachment or like an injunction. More the role of police liaison in order to minimise the risk of miscommunication and manipulation.
It is not necessary to have a lawyer to do the police liaison but having a lawyer present can sometimes be helpful.
Before deciding to engage with police, it can be worth asking other activists about their experience.
You should take notes during any meetings or conversations with police, including any agreements that have been made.
Before engaging with police, make sure you are well-informed about
- your rights, including protest rights; and
- what you are authorised to speak about on behalf of your group.
Guidelines for police liaison
All police liaison should have the authority and permission of the activist group.
Be clear about how much authority you have to speak and negotiate on behalf of your group and don’t overstep it.
All police liaison should be done in pairs of people – never liaise with police alone.
Police Liaison should speak with the commanding officer and operational commander of the relevant police unit.
This may take some research.
Be aware of public relations officers who have no authority.
Always ask for the operational commander who has direct control over the officers at the protest site.
Prepare what you will say and what information you will or will not provide beforehand. Check with your group that all this is okay.
Being courteous and respectful to police can help gain their trust and respect.
Demonstrating and behaving like you expect to be treated with respect, can also help make it a reality.
Be aware of what you can negotiate about and what is non-negotiable (i.e. the position of the banner may be negotiable but the line of people blockading are committed to staying and this is not).
Be aware that police may treat people differently depending on someone’s gender, race, disability, class, appearance, or any other characteristic.
Police may defer to or listen only to white cis-men.
Discuss with your group how you will deal with this if it happens.
Be aware of police promises, bluffs and threats. You may get coerced into abandoning all or part of the action.
Check what the police actually mean and clarify their points if you are unclear.
Make sure all the information, including threats and promises, is communicated accurately and clearly back to the activists.
Write down outcomes from liaison meetings, who was there, discussions. Especially if there are several police liaison meetings prior to a protest it is useful to know what was discussed, decided and agreed to at previous meetings.
Do not be afraid to highlight inappropriate police behaviour, police not wearing their name tags, police violence or excessive force, you may be the only people who have access to the commanding officer.
Provide Legal Information
Providing written legal information to participants is critical.
This could be as simple as linking relevant sections of this website onto other sites or Facebook pages about the protest.
You can also print out relevant sections and hand them out to people. Not everyone has internet access.
Sometimes, you may have to collate specific information about your protest. Make sure this information is available electronically and in hard copy.
There is a fine line between including enough information to help people understand the legal risks of their actions, and overwhelming people.
Think about how much information is necessary to provide to properly inform and empower people. Consider ways of presenting information that will aid understanding (such as: clear layout, simple language, pictures, minimal text, links to more information)
Justice Tracks Collective and Climate Camp
Leading up to Climate Camp the legal support team put in a lot of work creating a zine, a small hand-photocopied booklet full of info about preparing for and taking direct action.
It contained sections on ‘why take direct action’, common offences relating to protests, preparing for direct action, the arrest process, the court process, and a personal account from someone who had been arrested etc.
They deliberately tried to avoid the text-heavy and ‘boring’ format of a lot of legal information, and focused on making the resource accessible, easy to digest and beautiful, including diagrams and pictures, and a cartoon character P. Bear.
