Last month at Legal Aid - April 2020

In April 2020,

We provided preventative legal services to 19,677 people to help them resolve their legal problem.
2,787 people received early intervention services such as receiving legal advice and minor assistance from our lawyers over the phone, via videoconference or face-to-face at one of our offices.
We provided dispute resolution services to 167 people to help ex-partners work out their family law problems without going to court.
Our criminal law duty lawyers guided 825 adults through their appearance in the Magistrates Courts.
42 children were represented by our duty lawyers in the Childrens Courts.
Our family law duty lawyers helped 29 unrepresented people get through their day in the family law courts.
We approved aid for 190 children and adults to be represented by lawyers in the family courts.
We approved aid for lawyers to defend 1,997 people charged with criminal offences.
We helped ensure decisions made in 110 child protection proceedings were in the best interests of the children involved.
Our consumer protection lawyers helped 370 people sort out their money problems.

These statistics are reported in line with the National Partnership Agreement on Legal Assistance Services.

*The number of people = the number of matters.

**Preventative services includes referrals, information services, DV court assistance workers, information sessions and referrals, call centre and counter information services and referrals, CLE attendees, FLDL referrals and publications.

Media contact: Amanda Catania or Caroline Page (07) 3917 0407 or 3917 0457

Last updated 20 May 2020