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 7 – spousal maintenance
7.1 – assistance for applications for spousal maintenance
Victoria Legal Aid (VLA) may make a grant of legal assistance in relation to a spousal maintenance matter under the Family Law Act 1975 or the Family Court Act 1997 (WA) in order to either:
- make or respond to an application for a spousal maintenance order
- make or respond to an application to vary a spousal maintenance order.
VLA must be satisfied that:
- the applicant for assistance cannot obtain the order by consent
- the other party’s whereabouts are known, or substituted service is likely to be successful
- there is good reason to believe that the other party has the capacity, or is likely to have the capacity in the future, to pay to the applicant either spousal maintenance, or increased maintenance
- the applicant for assistance cannot adequately prepare or defend the court application without legal assistance
- the applicant for assistance cannot obtain appropriate legal assistance from another source.
Early intervention and dispute resolution
VLA will grant assistance for early intervention and dispute resolution for spousal maintenance matters in the first instance.
Roundtable Dispute Management (RDM) is VLA’s in-house family dispute resolution service. If a grant of legal assistance requiring the services of a mediator is made, then RDM must provide those services.