Anti-Discrimination Legal Aid Queensland's Anti-Discrimination Unit provides expert advice on issues about discrimination, eg discrimination based on the grounds of gender, race, religion or sexual preference.
discrimination – discrimination occurs when a person with an attribute is treated or proposed to be treated less favourably than a person without that attribute in the same or similar circumstances.
Child protection
Legal Aid Queensland's Child Protection Unit provides advice and conducts separate and direct representation of children and young people in chid protection cases.
Legal officers can comment on issues including:
- when the Department of Child Safety can apply to the Children's Court for a Child Protection Order
- the different Child Protection Orders the Children's Court can make
- the role and responsibilities of a 'separate representative' acting for a child (a separate representative is a lawyer who represents the child's best interests to the court).
Consumer protection
The Consumer Protection Unit provides specialist advice and casework services in consumer law. The unit provides direct advice to clients and also provides advice to lawyers and financial counsellors throughout Queensland.
Consumer Protection Unit legal officers can comment on issues including:
- the unlawful repossession of property and goods
- problems with attempting to cancel direct debit authorities
- consumer lease issues
- banking issues
- mobile phone contracts
- housing loans
- liability for statute barred debts
- harassment by debt collectors
- problems with door-to-door sales
- problems with fringe credit providers.
Criminal law
Legal Aid Queensland is the state's largest criminal law practice. The criminal law practice provides representation to people charged with criminal offences before Queensland courts.
Criminal Law Practice legal officers can comment on issues including:
- criminal procedure i.e. getting bail, sentencing options, when a criminal conviction is recorded, the criminal matters dealt with by the various courts
- personal rights i.e. the elements of self defence, what amounts to provocation, what amounts to reasonable force according to the specific circumstances
- Offences i.e. what elements must exist to make a case against an individual charged with a particular offence
- penalties i.e. the sentencing options provided for under The Penalties and Sentences Act, a prisoner's eligibility for probation
- police powers i.e. the length of time a person can be kept in custody, the alternatives to arrest, what information individual's have to give to police officers.
Note: It is often difficult for legal officers to comment on current cases or legally aided clients.
Criminal injuries compensation
Legal Aid Queensland's Criminal Injuries Compensation Unit (CICU) provides legal advice and represents people who have received a personal injury (physical or mental) as the result of a crime.
CICU legal officers can comment on issues including:
- who can claim criminal compensation
- how compensation amounts are worked out
- how victims can apply for compensation
- what time limits apply when making an application for criminal compensation
- how Legal Aid Queensland can help victims of crime.
criminal compensation - is an amount of money awarded to a person who has suffered personal injury (including physical harm, emotional harm and pregnancy) as a result of a crime, but it is not available to a bystander who witnesses the crime.
Drug Court
The Drug Court has been formed to deal with the sentencing of people who have been brought before the Magistrates Court and pleaded guilty to certain drug-related offences. It offers offenders the chance to take part in an Intensive Drug Rehabilitation Order as an alternative to prison.
Our legal officers play a major role in the Queensland Drug Court system, representing individuals who are brought before the Drug Court.
Our Drug Court legal officers can comment on issues including:
- the role of the Drug Court
- what an Intensive Drug Rehabilitation Order involves
- the aims of the Drug Court
- evidence of the Drug Court's success
- the structure of the Drug Court i.e. who oversees it, what government departments are involved.
Duty lawyer services
Legal Aid Queensland coordinates the Queensland duty lawyer program. In the Brisbane region, duty lawyer services are provided by Legal Aid Queensland's in-house criminal lawyers and private lawyers. Across regional Queensland, duty lawyer services are also provided by preferred supplier law firms (law firms Legal Aid Queensland has developed partnerships with). Legal Aid Queensland can comment on issues including:
- the role of the duty lawyer
- when the duty lawyer is available
- who can use the duty lawyer services
- which courts the duty lawyer operates from.
duty lawyer - is a person (either a solicitor or a barrister) appointed by Legal Aid to help unrepresented people (either on summons, bail or in custody) who have been charged with criminal offences in most Children's Courts and most Magistrates Courts.
Family law
Legal Aid Queensland's Family Law Practice provides specialist family law services in the areas of child support, domestic violence, representation of children in various forums and general family law matters.
Legal officers from the Family Law Practice can comment on issues including:
residence – who the children live with (formerly called 'custody')
contact – when the children visit the person they don't live with
property settlement – division of the property of husband and wife after separation
divorce – the legal procedure which ends a marriage (divorce does not settle issues about property).
child support – money which a person pays to help financially support his or her child when the child does not live with that person. It can be provided in ways other than the payment of money, such as continued use of the family home, car, payment of school fees, rent etc.
liable parent - this is the term used for the person who the child does not usually live with. The child may or may not have contact with this parent. The Child Support Agency legislation refers to this person as a 'payer'.
domestic violence - domestic and family violence occurs between people in a range of domestic relationships including spousal, intimate personal, family and informal care relationships.
Protection Order - to obtain a Protection Order, a person, referred to in court as an aggrieved, must show that one of the following types of violence has occurred and is likely to occur again:
- threats to injure a person or damage their property
- physical violence (including violence which does not cause actual injury eg. pushing, shoving, holding down etc)
- damage to property (including animals)
- indecent behaviour (eg. coercive sexual behaviour, forced sexual intercourse
- intimidation and harassment i.e. persistent phone calls, verbal abuse, financial and psychological abuse.
Farm and rural legal issues
Legal Aid Queensland's Farm and Rural Legal Service provides advice and assistance to Queensland rural producers and businesses who have severe debt-related problems or are in dispute with their lenders or are otherwise facing financial hardship that relates to their business of primary production.
Our Farm and Rural Legal Service legal officers can comment on issues including:
- how the Farm and Rural Legal Service can help rural producers with severe debt-related problems
- producers' financial and legal rights during periods of drought
- the assistance measures available to rural producers in times of economic hardship.
Granting of legal aid
To get Legal Aid representation applicants must meet the Legal Aid Queensland means and merits test.
The means test involves reviewing an applicant's income and assets to determine if they are financially eligible for legal aid. Young people under 17 years of age and applicants who rely on Centrelink payments for their income are generally eligible for legal aid, provided they are within the assets test guidelines.
The merits test considers a number of things including:
- whether the grant of aid is an appropriate use of public funds
- guidelines set by the Commonwealth or State Government
- the prospects of success
- the Legal Aid Queensland Reasonableness Test which applies criteria such as whether the application reveals some ulterior motive.
Our CEO or Grants Manager can answer queries about the granting of legal aid process. For example:
- What is the means test?
- Who does the means test apply to?
- How does the means test assess income?
- What criteria makes up the Reasonableness Test?
Indigenous people and the law
Legal Aid Queensland's Integrated Indigenous Strategy Unit works to increase access to specialist legal services by Indigenous women and their families, assists women who have been the victims of assault and domestic violence and provides information about basic legal rights and available support services.
Integrated Indigenous Strategy Unit legal officers can comment on issues including:
- the provision of legal services to women in Indigenous communities
- legal issues impacting Indigenous women throughout Queensland
- how Legal Aid Queensland can help to protect the legal rights of Indigenous women.
Primary dispute resolution
Primary Dispute Resolution (PDR) is a non-litigious alternative to resolving legal disputes. PDR encourages parties to resolve their differences through mediation under the guidance of an independent chairperson. Legal Aid Queensland is the only legal aid commission with two distinct PDR streams to help clients with family law disputes – the Family Law Conference Program and the Property Arbitration Program.
Legal Aid Queensland can comment on issues including:
- the benefits PDR offers clients
- what is involved in implementing PDR
- how Legal Aid Queensland PDR programs operate
- the challenges involved for Legal Aid Queensland when trying to resolve issues through PDR.
Youth law
Criminal
A person aged 16 years and younger is dealt with as a juvenile in criminal law matters. A person aged 17 years and older is dealt with as an adult. Legal Aid Queensland's Youth Legal Aid Team helps juveniles who have been charged with a criminal offence.
The Youth Legal Aid Team can provide expert opinion on issues relating to juveniles and criminal law matters including:
- criminal responsibility
- questioning by police
- sentencing options available to the court when dealing with young people
- the Childrens Court i.e. how it operates, how it is different from adult courts.
Civil – The Youth Advocate
Legal Aid Queensland's Youth Advocate advises, helps and represents young people under the age of 18 (or where the person was under 18 when the dispute occurred) in civil disputes. The Youth Advocate can comment on issues including:
- a young person's rights and legal obligations when:
- leaving home
- working
- entering a contract
- purchasing and using alcohol, cigarettes and drugs.
- trends and issues affecting young people's legal rights.
Mental health
Our Mental Health Unit provides information and advice to people in mental institutions and represents people before the Mental Health Court.
Mental Health Unit legal officers can comment on issues including:
- what an involuntary treatment order is
- the rights of mental health patients
- the powers of the Mental Health Court
- how a person can make a complaint about medical treatment.
Women and the law
Women's Legal Aid is a specialised unit of Legal Aid Queensland working to improve and increase women's access to legal aid services. The unit provides legal advice, representation, social work support and court assistance in domestic violence matters.
Women's Legal Aid can comment on issues involving women and their interaction with our legal system including:
- the support services Women's Legal Aid offers women during domestic violence court proceedings
- issues that affect women's access to legal services
- the number of women who receive representation by Legal Aid Queensland each year
- violence against women
- initiatives undertaken by Women's Legal Aid to help women from non-English speaking backgrounds in need of legal assistance.
Telephone legal advice and information
Legal Aid Queensland provides free telephone legal information and advice. Our statewide telephone legal advice service accounts for about 30 per cent of all Legal Aid Queensland advices.
We also provide information and referrals to more than 250,000 people a year through our Client Information Services call centre.
Legal Aid Queensland can comment on issues involving the provision of telephone legal information and advice including:
- the benefits telephone advice and information offer Queenslanders i.e. benefit to rural and regional Queenslanders who are unable to access Legal Aid Queensland services in person
- the types of queries clients have for our Legal Officers and Client Information Officers
- how our Legal Officers and Client Information Officers can help clients over the phone
- the technology used to enable Legal Aid Queensland to successfully help such a large number of clients via telephone services.