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Legal Assistance

You can get legal assistance by hiring a lawyer directly or by seeking assistance from a number of organisations, such as Victoria Legal Aid, Community Legal Centres, or the Law Institute of Victoria.

Finding a Lawyer

You can get information about how to choose a lawyer and find details of lawyers through the Law Institute of Victoria, including online in the Find a lawyer section of their website.

Legal assistance provided by Victoria Legal Aid

Victoria Legal Aid (VLA) is an independent statutory body, jointly funded by the state and commonwealth governments, that provides legal aid services to the Victorian community.
VLA provides legal information, advice and assistance in relation to criminal issues, family breakdown, family violence, immigration, social security, mental health, debt and traffic offences.

VLA services include:

• providing general legal information through telephone services, self-help services, publications, the public access law library and the internet
• delivering legal education through programs designed to educate members of the general public about their legal rights and responsibilities
• the provision of initial legal advice in a VLA office, at a prison, or another institution, on the telephone or in person
  the delivery of duty lawyer services and representation of clients at court without prior arrangement, or to people involuntarily detained in inpatient psychiatric services
• the facilitation of roundtable dispute management - a non-adversarial forum that gives people the opportunity to resolve their family dispute themselves, without going to court
• providing ongoing legal assistance through the handling of a case by a VLA lawyer or a private lawyer paid by VLA to represent a client.

Legal assistance provided by Community Legal Centres

Community Legal Centres (CLCs) are independent, non-profit organisations which provide referral, advice and assistance on a variety of legal matters.

Details of your nearest Community Legal Centre can be found on the Community Legal Centres Section of the Law Institute of Victoria website, or on the or “The Federation of Community Legal Centres (Vic) Inc website.”

Legal assistance provided by the Law Institute of Victoria - Legal Assistance Scheme

The Law Institute of Victoria runs a referral service which assists people in finding pro bono legal assistance. The Scheme is administered by the Public Interest Law Clearing House.

You can find more information in the Legal Assistance Scheme section of Law Institute of Victoria website.