Table of contents
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Table of contents
- 1 – Introduction
- 2 – Types of matters that may be assisted
- 3 – Criminal law guidelines
- 4 – Commonwealth family law and child support guidelines
- 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
State family matters
State family matters are applications under the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 sometimes known as:
- protection applications
- Department of Human Services (DHS) proceedings
- Children’s Court (Family Division) proceedings.
Victoria Legal Aid (VLA) may make a grant of legal assistance to a person in relation to a State family matter under Victorian law if:
- the matter is a State family matter within the State family guidelines
- usually, VLA considers the person cannot afford the full cost of private legal services (the means test).
If the matter, the proceedings and the person meet these threshold requirements, then VLA will make a grant of legal assistance to respond to an application in the Family Division of the Children’s Court if VLA considers that:
- it is reasonable to make a grant of legal assistance, after having taken into account all relevant matters (the State reasonableness test)
and - the matter is likely to terminate in favour of the applicant.
State family guidelines
The State family guidelines set out the conditions under which a grant of legal asisstance made be made for the following matters:
- a child involved in the Family Division of the Children’s Court
- a parent, guardian or other interested person involved in a proceeding in the Family Division of the Children’s Court.