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Table of contents
1 – Introduction
Victoria Legal Aid services
Roundtable Dispute Management
Handbook overview
National Commonwealth legal aid guidelines
2 – Types of matters that may be assisted
Criminal law matters
State family matters
Commonwealth family law and child support matters
State civil law matters
Commonwealth civil law matters
Other matters: special circumstances
Types of matters that will not be assisted
3 – Criminal law guidelines
Guideline 1.1 – ‘not guilty’ plea in the Magistrates’ Court
Guideline 1.2 – ‘guilty’ plea in the Magistrates’ Court
Guideline 1.3 – Assessment and Referral Court List matters
Guidelines 1.4 and 1.5 – social security prosecutions
Guideline 2 – traffic offence charges in the Magistrates’ Court
Guideline 3.1 – committal proceedings involving homicide, consent or identification
Guideline 3.2 – committal proceedings in other cases
Guideline 4 – trials in the County or Supreme courts
Guideline 4.1 – County Court and Supreme Court pleas
Guideline 5.1 – proceedings in the Criminal Division of the Children’s Court
Guideline 6 – bail applications in the Magistrates’, County and Supreme courts
Guideline 7.1 – criminal appeals to the County Court
Guideline 7.2 – interlocutory appeals to the Court of Appeal
Guideline 7.3 – appeals to the High Court
Guideline 7.4 – leave to appeal against sentence in the Court of Appeal
Guideline 7.5 – appeal against sentence in the Court of Appeal
Guideline 7.6 – leave to appeal against conviction/conviction and sentence in the Court of Appeal
Guideline 7.7 – appeal against conviction/conviction and sentence in the Court of Appeal
Guideline 8 – stay applications under the Criminal Procedure Act
Guideline 9 – hearings under the Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried) Act
Guideline 10 – Serious Sex Offenders (Detention and Supervision) Act
County Court breach proceedings
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
Guideline 1 – general guideline for Commonwealth civil matters
Guideline 2 – social security and other benefits: administrative appeals
Guideline 3 – assistance for migration cases
Guideline 4 – equal opportunity and discrimination
Guideline 5 – war veterans' matters
Guideline 6 – other Federal Court and High Court proceedings
Guideline 7 – Proceeds of Crime Act 2002
Guideline 8 – extradition proceedings
Guideline 9 – appeals
6 – State family guidelines
Guideline 1 – child involved in a case in the Family Division of the Children’s Court
Guideline 2 – parent, guardian or other interested person involved in a case in the Family Division of the Children’s Court
7 – State civil law guidelines
Guideline 1 – general civil claims of $5000 or more
Guideline 2 – Mental Health Review Board cases
Guideline 3 – guardianship and/or administration cases in the Guardianship List
Guideline 4 – coronial inquests
Guideline 5 – equal opportunity or discrimination cases
Guideline 5a – Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal cases
Guideline 6 – family violence protection order cases
Guideline 6a – personal safety intervention order cases
Guideline 7 – adoption
Guideline 8 – State civil law matters that will not be assisted
Guideline 10 – infringements cases
Guideline 11 – witnesses appearing before the Chief Examiner or Examiner
Guideline 12 – social security cases at the ARO and SSAT stages
Guideline 13 – drought legal assistance package
8 – Public interest and strategic litigation
9 – Standard grants assessment process
10 – Simplified grants assessment process
Notes on the guidelines – simplified grants assessment process
11 – Referral and practitioner panels
Section 29A practitioner panels
Removal and suspension from a section 29A panel
Section 29A panel practitioner manual
Section 30 Referral Panel
Removal from the Section 30 Referral Panel
12 – Means test
Whose income and assets are assessed in the means test?
People with other sources of funds
People the means test does not apply to
Income test
Estimated legal costs and the income test
How the initial contribution is calculated based on income
How income is calculated
What is included as income
Allowable deductions
Assets test
How the initial contribution is calculated based on assets
How the value of assets is calculated
What is included as assets
Allowable assets
Farm or business – special rule for calculating equity
Documentary proof of means
13 – Commonwealth merits test
The reasonable prospects of success test
The prudent self-funding litigant test
The appropriateness of spending limited public legal aid funds test
14 – State reasonableness test and interests of justice test
State reasonableness test
State interests of justice test
15 – Special circumstances
The Commonwealth’s special circumstances
The State’s special circumstances
Additional information requirements
16 – Applying for a grant of legal assistance
The application forms
Does a person need a lawyer to help them apply?
Helping a client apply for a grant of legal assistance
How to fill in the application form
Giving false information or omitting relevant information in the application
Late applications and time limits
How to apply for further assistance, or additional assistance
Submitting the application
Urgent applications
Applications by children
Applications to take legal action against VLA
Applications by VLA staff for a grant of legal assistance for themselves
Interstate matters
Forum test
Australian legal aid commissions application forms
17 – Decision to grant or refuse assistance
If a grant of legal assistance is refused
If a grant of legal assistance is made
Limits on the costs payable by VLA
18 – Reconsideration and review of decisions
Which decisions may be reconsidered or reviewed?
Internal reconsideration of decisions
Independent review of decisions
19 – Standard terms and conditions
20 – Contributions and overdue payments
Contributions
Final contributions
Overdue contribution payments
Charge or other security over an assisted person’s property
Equitable charge
Statutory charge
Irrevocable authority
Caveats
Dealings with charged property
Debt policy
21 – Abandoning legal assistance
22 – Finalising grants of legal assistance
23 – Allocation of work to lawyers and law firms
How VLA allocates work to lawyers or law firms
General terms of allocation of work
Requesting a change of allocated lawyer
24 – Payments to lawyers and service providers
Professional costs
Counsel's fees
Payments to agents
Duty lawyer schemes
Disbursements
Interim claims for authorised disbursements
Table OO – VLA rates for reimbursement of authorised disbursements/expenses
Table Q – Expert reports and court attendances in family law matters
Table S – Expert reports and court attendances by psychologists and psychiatrists in criminal matters
Cost ceilings
Stage of matter limits
Lump sum fees
Costs payable in criminal law matters
Fee Schedule 1 – Lump sum and other fees payable in criminal law matters
Conditions for paying lump sum fees in criminal law matters
Principles applying to payment of preparation fees to solicitors
Summary criminal proceedings
Table A – Fees for summary criminal proceedings
Table B – Lump sum fees for bail applications in the Magistrates’ Court and in the Criminal Division of the Children’s Court
Table C – Lump sum fees for bail applications in the County Court
Table D – Lump sum fees for bail applications in the Supreme Court
Principles applying to payment of fees for Magistrates' Court stage of indictable matters
Table E – Lump sum fees for Magistrates’ Court stage of an indictable crime matter
Principles applying to payment of fees for the County or Supreme court stage of an indictable crime matter
Table F – Lump sum fees for County Court and Supreme Court stage of an indictable crime matter
Table F(i) – Lump sum and other fees for serious indictable crime matters in the Children’s Court
Table G – Lump sum fees for sentence appeals in the County Court
Table H – Lump sum fees for appeals against sentence and conviction in the County Court
Table J – Lump sum fees for County Court breach matters
Table K – Lump sum fees for appeals to the Court of Appeal
Table K(i) – Lump sum fees for appeal by the Director of Public Prosecutions to the Court of Appeal
Table K(ii) – Lump sum fees for interlocutory appeal
Table L – Lump sum fees for criminal appeals in the High Court
Table NN – Circuit fees for committals and bail, pleas and appeals in the County Court and solicitor out-of-office fees for trials
Fee Schedule 1A – Fees payable in criminal matters if an Appeal Costs Certificate has been granted
Table BBB – Fees for criminal matters if an Appeal Costs Certificate is granted
Fee Schedule 4 – Counsel’s fees in criminal trials
Principles applying to payment of preparation fees to counsel
Table ZZ – Hourly rates for counsel’s preparation fees and conferences in indictable criminal trials
Table RR – Counsel’s circuit fees
Table M – Guide to fees for counsel in criminal trials
Table Z – Fees for applications and reviews in Serious Sex Offender (Detention and Supervision) Act proceedings
Table T – Counsel’s fees in Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried) Act matters
Costs payable in State family matters
Table A2 – Standard fees in State family cases in the Family Division of the Children’s Court
Principles applying to payment of fees in Family Violence Protection Act 2008 matters
Table A4 – Lump sum fees in Family Violence Protection Act matters
Costs payable in Commonwealth family law matters
Principles applying to family law matters generally
Fee Schedule 1M – Family law stage of matter limits
Stage 1 – negotiations/Roundtable Dispute Management
Stage 2 – litigation
Stage 3 – preparation for trial
Stage 4 – trial costs for lawyer in the Family Court and the Federal Magistrates Court
Stage 5 – appeals in the Family Court
Counsel’s fees – trial costs
Annulment proceedings
Independent children’s lawyer proceedings – Family Court
Independent children’s lawyer proceedings – Federal Magistrates Court
Counsel’s fees – independent children’s lawyer
Assistance for child support matters
Fee Schedule 3 – Counsel’s fees in family law matters
Table 6 – Counsel’s fees in family law matters
Daily circuit fees for counsel in family law matters
Costs payable in civil law matters
Fee Schedule 2 – Professional costs, lump sum and other fees in civil law matters
Preparation fees for counsel in civil law matters
Table N – Lump sum fees for coronial inquests
Table O – Lump sum fees for hearings before the Mental Health Review Board, the Forensic Leave Panel and the Guardianship List
Table V – Social security reviews and appeals
Table V(i) – Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal
Table W – Equal opportunity cases
Table X – Lump sum fees for Infringements Court cases
Table Y – Lump sum fees for Chief Examiner or Examiner (Witness Assistance) court cases
Principles applying to payment of fees in Personal Safety Intervention Order Act 2010 matters
Table A5 – Lump sum fees in Personal Safety Intervention Order Act matters
Fee Schedule 5 – Fees in migration cases
Fee Schedule 6 – Fees in war veterans’ cases
Table U3 – War veterans’ cases at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal
Table U4 – Appeals to Federal Court or Federal Magistrates Court (Veterans)
25 – Compliance reviews
Compliance review methodology
Compliance notices
Rights to request reconsideration or review of decisions to give compliance notices
Decision reconsideration and review process
Compliance reviews – consequences for an assisted person
26 – Privacy protection
Personal information in the application for legal assistance
Right to access and amend personal information held by VLA
Privacy complaints
27 – Complaints and feedback
Complaints and feedback about VLA services, staff and private lawyers funded by VLA
Topic index
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Advance search
Invoice, worksheets and forms
General forms
Grants of legal assistance – guide and application form
Recipient-created tax invoice agreement
Financial statement
Centrelink consent and authority form
Tax invoice
Family law worksheets
Family law worksheet
Family law overcap worksheet
Paternity testing worksheet
Proof of means worksheet – family law
Children's Court (Family Division) worksheets
Children's Court (Family Division) worksheet
Children's Court (Family Division) worksheet - hearing funding exceeding 5 days
Criminal law worksheets and checklists
Bail traffic consolidation worksheet
Committals worksheet – State and Commonwealth
Contested committals – exceeding two days worksheet
County Court appeal worksheet
Criminal trials and pleas worksheet
Medical/psychologist/psychiatrist report worksheet
Preparation fees worksheet
Proof of means worksheet – criminal law
Summary crime worksheet
Youth crime worksheet
Post-committal negotiation checklist
Civil law worksheets
Family Violence Protection Act worksheet
Infringement matters worksheet
Personal safety intervention order worksheet
Forms A-Z
Contact us
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ATLAS help
Applicant details – frequently asked questions
Business and farm help
Child care expenses help
Child dispute help
Child support help
Child support income help
Court hearings help
Dependants help
Family law fee ceiling help
Financially associated person (FAP) help
Guideline statement help (Commonwealth civil law)
Lump sum received help
Matters help
Other parties help
Preclusion lump sum help
Archived versions of the Handbook