Legal Aid Queensland Application (LAQ_00070, January 2020 Edition)

What Is Legal Aid Queensland Application

The Legal Aid Queensland Application Form is a document used to request a grant of legal aid from Legal Aid Queensland (LAQ), an organization in Queensland, Australia. LAQ gives free legal information to anyone; legal advice and grants of legal aid (a lawyer to represent you) depend on eligibility. The fundamental purpose of this document is to collect information from applicants, including details about their problem with the law, financial situation, and personal information.

The blank on this page is LAQ's current application form (LAQ_00070, January 2020), the edition LAQ publishes on legalaid.qld.gov.au.

This form helps determine an applicant's eligibility for attorney support and assists Legal Aid Queensland in allocating resources effectively to those in need of juridical support.

Who Can Apply for Legal Aid Queensland

To get a grant of legal aid from Legal Aid Queensland, you must meet the following criteria:

• be financially eligible under LAQ's means test, which checks income and assets and applies unless LAQ's policy says otherwise or its means test special circumstances guidelines apply (for example, young people aged 17 and under don't have to meet the means test);
• have a legal problem that meets LAQ's funding guidelines, which fund specific types of matters, for example some criminal matters, parenting and child protection matters, domestic and family violence matters and discrimination matters;
• meet LAQ's merits test where it applies (some types of grant are exempt from it);
• if you do not normally live in Queensland, the legal assistance must relate to a court proceeding in Queensland or a matter arising under the law in force in Queensland.

If your application is approved, you may have to pay towards your legal costs.

How to Fill Out Legal Aid Application

An application for legal aid must be made in LAQ's approved form. To apply now, use the current form (the one on this page; LAQ also provides it on legalaid.qld.gov.au, at its offices or by calling 1300 65 11 88), or apply through a private lawyer who does legal aid work. The form is quite lengthy, spanning 17 pages. To succeed in completing the file, follow these 7 important steps:

1. Begin by thoroughly reviewing the instructions and guidelines within the application form to understand the requirements.
2. Provide accurate personal details, including your name, contact information, home address, marital status, and whether you were born in another country.
3. Describe your law-related issue in detail, explaining the circumstances and parties involved.
4. If you are 17 or younger, question 3 of the form tells you to skip the financial details section and go to question 10. Otherwise, disclose your financial situation, including household income, dependants, assets, money in the bank, and any government benefits or financial help you receive, plus the financial circumstances of anyone who helps you financially.
5. Attach the documents the form's checklist asks for, such as financial documents (for example a Centrelink income statement) and copies of any court or legal documents about your problem.
6. Provide as many details about your law-related problem as possible.
7. Sign the authority (applicants or authorised people must sign it), then sign and date the application form's declaration; by signing, you acknowledge that making a false or misleading statement when applying is an offence.

Follow these steps and complete the application carefully. LAQ aims to assess about 80 percent of applications within five days, but complex applications can take two weeks or more.

Applying for Legal Aid QLD

You apply for a grant of legal aid by submitting LAQ's current application form (the edition on this page). Once you've filled out the form and attached the documents its checklist asks for, you can lodge it by post (GPO Box 2449, Brisbane Qld 4001), by email to [email protected], or by hand at a Legal Aid Queensland office. Send photocopies, not original documents. If you email it, the form says the form and documents must be scanned (camera photos are not accepted) and sent as PDF attachments, one file per document, in a single email of up to 25 MB including attachments, with no zip files and no links to Google Drive or other third-party sites. If an LAQ in-house lawyer or a preferred supplier (a private law firm that does legal aid work) applies for you, they lodge the application electronically through LAQ's Grants Online. Check the lodgement instructions printed on the form before you send it. If your matter is urgent, contact a lawyer who does legal aid work or LAQ straight away rather than relying on the usual assessment time. LAQ's grants handbook says a matter may be processed without a signed application in urgent situations, but any urgent aid approved is interim and lapses within 14 days unless a formal application for legal aid is received. Let PDFLiner become your loyal assistant when it comes to all things digital file management.