Stenbroens Jurister – Street lawyers in Copenhagen, Denmark
Stenbroens Jurister is a specialized legal aid for the homeless, drug users, sex workers and other street people in Denmark.
Our name best translates as ‘the cobblestone lawyers’, inspired by the streets of the old and historically poor neighborhoods we most often work in. Accordingly, our staff is referred to as street lawyers (“gadejurister” in Danish).
What we do is simply street lawyering for our communities most vulnerable. We provide legal aid directly on the street, by phone or at our legal clinic in the heart of Vesterbro in Copenhagen. This means we offer free legal counselling and support in ongoing cases where a public defender or other representation has not been provided by the state.
Because of the people we work for, our lawyers are specialized in legal matters concerning access to treatment and other health services, shelters and housing, benefits, drug possession for personal use and other basic welfare issues.
We are an NGO and work completely independent of government authorities, including the police and migration services.
Contact information
Homeless people, drug users, sex workers and other street people in need of legal aid and support can contact us here:
Our legal clinic in Abel Cathrines Gade 21, 1654 Copenhagen V. The clinic is open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 10 am to 3 pm.
By phone at (+45) 33 33 05 05. Please leave a message if we do not reply.
In addition to our personal and case based legal aid services, we conduct information campaigns about legal rights and engage authorities about practices that are harmful to the people we work for. This work is always based on our case experiences and carried out in close dialogue with user representatives.
From Gadejuristen to Stenbroens Jurister
Our staff has more than 70 years of combined experience in street lawyering, but our organization is quite new. Stenbroens Jurister was established in 2021 following the complete collapse of the Danish legal aid Gadejuristen where we all used to work. We left after a series of decisions by our former director and board that we believe was harmful to our clients and to vulnerable groups more broadly,
When the board of Gadejuristen decided to stop all activities, all the former employees established Stenbroens Jurister to fill the gap and secure access to street based legal aid for both our known clients and for street people more generally.
Visiting and presentations
We often receive requests from user representatives, professionals and delegations who are visiting Copenhagen and are interested in meeting us and learning about our work. We love to have guests and exchange experience and ideas, so please write us if your organization is planning to go to Denmark.
We can of course not prioritize all requests, but we strive to make something possible as well as providing contact information to local user organizations, other NGO’s and service providers etc. that might be relevant to reach out to.
Our email address is kontakt@stenbroensjurister.dk
