Free legal advice

If you have a legal problem, or want to find out information about the law, Victoria Legal Aid may be able to help.

Learn more about your legal problem

You can get free information about many legal issues by:

• going to the Find legal answers section on this website – each topic has information about the law and who you can contact for more help
• ordering our free publications and resources
• visiting our public law library to access legislation, case law and other legal materials.

You can also call us to get help over the phone about the law and to find out how we can help you. This service is free.

How our lawyers can help you

Depending on your legal matter and your circumstances, we may be able to give you legal advice over the phone or refer you to see a lawyer. Our lawyers give free legal advice on a range of matters to people who need it most.

If you have a court hearing, but do not have your own lawyer, you may be able to get help at court from one of our duty lawyers. The duty lawyer service is free but we cannot help everyone, so it is best to call us before going to court.

You may also be entitled to get a lawyer to run your case through a grant of legal assistance. These grants pay for some or all of the costs involved in running a case. We have clear rules about who can get a grant of legal assistance.

Legal problems we don’t give advice about

There are some things we don’t give legal advice about. They include:

• association queries (incorporated and unincorporated)
• bankruptcy
• building, buying and selling houses and land
• bullying – general workplace bullying complaints where there is no employment discrimination element
• business and commercial matters
• consumer disputes
• defamation
• employment law – except those connected with discrimination, sexual harassment, victimisation or vilification
• financial planning
• freedom of information
• horse agistment
• insurance
• intellectual property
• landlord issues
• migration matters that relate to business, skilled, student, tourist visas
• owner’s corporation (body corporate) queries
• pay disputes
• personal injury matters that may include medical negligence, TAC, public liability, occupier’s liability
• privacy
• product liability
• rental property disputes and conveyancing
• superannuation claims and appeals
• taxation matters (not criminal offences)
• town planning, development and environment disputes
• Wills and deceased estates
• work injuries.