Grants of legal assistance Eligibility for Victoria Legal Aid services varies depending on the service provided. As the service intensity increases, eligibility tightens, as demonstrated below. Preventative and early intervention services We provide preventative services to Victorians to help them understand their legal options at the earliest opportunity and who to contact if they need further assistance. An informed person can act on their legal rights and can help prevent a legal problem from escalating, avoiding costly litigation at court. Our preventative services are free and include: our Legal Help telephone service, the main entry point to legal aid services, which provides legal information, advice and referrals our face-to-face information and referral service, available at all Victoria Legal Aid offices online and printed information through our website and publications targeted community legal education to increase of their legal rights and people’s knowledge responsibilities and mitigate the escalation of legal disputes legal advice sessions over the phone or face-to-face at our offices or via outreach services minor assistance and advice (which includes advocacy services) when there is a need for some ongoing assistance and there is a tangible benefit for the client. Legal Help telephone service Our free Legal Help telephone service received 191,030 calls, an increase of 2.5 per cent. We dealt with 125,512 of these calls, 13 per cent more than last year. The top five matters dealt with by our Legal Help telephone service were: Time spent with children Infringements (fine default) Property settlement (in family law) Family violence (application for intervention orders) The law in general. During 2016–17, callers to Legal Help were reported as: 52 per cent female 47 per cent male one per cent unspecified.
Grants of legal assistance Eligibility for Victoria Legal Aid services varies depending on the service provided. As the service intensity increases, eligibility tightens, as demonstrated below. Preventative and early intervention services We provide preventative services to Victorians to help them understand their legal options at the earliest opportunity and who to contact if they need further assistance. An informed person can act on their legal rights and can help prevent a legal problem from escalating, avoiding costly litigation at court. Our preventative services are free and include: our Legal Help telephone service, the main entry point to legal aid services, which provides legal information, advice and referrals our face-to-face information and referral service, available at all Victoria Legal Aid offices online and printed information through our website and publications targeted community legal education to increase people’s knowledge of their legal rights and responsibilities and mitigate the escalation of legal disputes legal advice sessions over the phone or face-to-face at our offices or via outreach services minor assistance and advice (which includes advocacy services) when there is a need for some ongoing assistance and there is a tangible benefit for the client. Legal Help telephone service Our free Legal Help telephone service received 191,030 calls, an increase of 2.5 per cent. We dealt with 125,512 of these calls, 13 per cent more than last year. The top five matters dealt with by our Legal Help telephone service were: Time spent with children Infringements (fine default) Property settlement (in family law) Family violence (application for intervention orders) The law in general. During 2016–17, callers to Legal Help were reported as: 52 per cent female 47 per cent male one per cent unspecified.
vla-annual-report-2016-17.docx