Table of contents
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Table of contents
- 1 – Introduction
- 2 – Types of matters that may be assisted
- 3 – Criminal law guidelines
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4 – Commonwealth family law and child support guidelines
- Guideline 1 – early intervention and dispute resolution
- Guideline 2 – litigation
- Guideline 3 – parties who are not parents
- Guideline 4 – assistance for applications to discharge or vary parenting arrangements
- Guideline 5 – independent representation of children
- Guideline 6 – child support and child maintenance
- Guideline 7 – spousal maintenance
- Guideline 8 – arrears of spousal or child maintenance or child support
- Guideline 9 – parentage
- Guideline 10 – special medical procedures involving children
- Guideline 11 – recovery, location and information orders
- Guideline 12 – nullity of marriage
- Guideline 13 – assistance after final court orders are made
- Guideline 14 – appeals
- Guideline 15 – contravention and enforcement of court orders and contempt of court
- Guideline 16 – international child abduction matters
- Guideline 17 – family law costs management
- Family law trials and final hearings
- Jurisdiction of family law proceedings
- 5 – Commonwealth civil law guidelines
- 6 – State family guidelines
- 7 – State civil law guidelines
- 8 – Standard grants assessment process
- 9 – Simplified grants assessment process
- 10 – Referral and practitioner panels
- 11 – Means test
- 12 – Commonwealth merits test
- 13 – State reasonableness test and interests of justice test
- 14 – Special circumstances
- 15 – Applying for a grant of legal assistance
- 16 – Decision to grant or refuse assistance
- 17 – Reconsideration and review of decisions
- 18 – Standard terms and conditions
- 19 – Contributions and overdue payments
- 20 – Abandoning legal assistance
- 21 – Finalising grants of legal assistance
- 22 – Allocation of work to lawyers and law firms
- 23 – Payments to lawyers and service providers
- 24 – Compliance reviews
- 25 – Privacy protection
- 26 – Complaints and feedback
- Topic index
- Invoices, worksheets and forms
- Contact us
Guideline 1 – early intervention and dispute resolution
Victoria Legal Aid (VLA) may provide a grant of assistance for early intervention and dispute resolution in the circumstances set out in this section.
It should be noted that VLA only provides assistance for litigation in family law matters in limited circumstances and so every effort should be made to resolve the matter at the early intervention and dispute resolution stage.
1.1 – parenting orders
VLA may provide a grant of assistance for early intervention and dispute resolution in relation to parenting orders where there is a dispute about a substantial issue.
A substantial issue is one that is likely to have a significant impact on the child’s safety or welfare or where the dispute is about with whom a child is to live, or about the child’s right to spend time with their parents or significant others.
Examples of disputes about a substantial issue are:
- where and with whom the child is to live
- whether 'time spent' should not be allowed
- whether 'time spent' should be supervised
- whether 'time spent' should be allowed overnight rather than only during daytime
- whether a parent should be allowed to relocate to another state or country or a significant distance within the same state
- in circumstances, where there are no parenting orders in place and this is causing significant conflict between the parties.
Examples of disputes that are not considered substantial are:
- who should pay for travel costs associated with 'time spent'
- which school the child should attend
- 'time spent' for birthdays, Christmas or other significant celebrations
- proportionately small changes to the number of hours of time spent unless the child is of pre-school age, for example:
- where the child is under the age of two years, a change of a number of hours in time spent may be considered substantial
- where the child is aged two–six years, a half-day change in time spent may be considered substantial.
- where there is no issue in dispute and the parties are seeking to formalise existing parenting arrangements
- the only issue between the parties is that they have difficulty communicating.
1.2 – property
VLA may provide a grant of assistance for early intervention and dispute resolution in relation to property matters where assistance is granted for parenting orders under paragraph 1.1 above and either of the following applies:
- the only property in dispute relates to a superannuation entitlement from which the applicant for assistance may receive a superannuation splitting order
- the main property in dispute is the family home in which the applicant’s equity is $300,000 or less.
Roundtable Dispute Management
Roundtable Dispute Management (RDM) is VLA’s in-house family dispute resolution service. If a grant of legal assistance requiring the services of a family dispute resolution practitioner is made, then RDM must provide those services.
RDM services during litigation
VLA may make a grant of legal assistance for RDM services while litigation is ongoing if, as a result of litigation, the issues in dispute have narrowed to such an extent that it is possible a non-litigation approach will bring about a final settlement. VLA expects practitioners to consider whether a matter is suitable for RDM litigation intervention once a matter has been set down for trial and before a request is made for an extension of assistance for preparation for trial.
Deferral of a grant of legal assistance for litigation
If VLA has decided to make a grant of legal assistance for litigation but the lawyer for one of the parties then recommends RDM services, VLA will defer providing a grant of assistance for litigation until the outcome of the RDM process is known.