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:

• business or commercial matters – see Business Victoria
• buying property, building contracts and disputes – see Consumer Affairs Victoria
• defamation – see The Law Handbook
• intellectual property law – see Intellectual Property Australia
• pay disputes – see Fair Work Ombudsman
• work injuries – see WorkSafe
• Wills and deceased estates – see Get help with Wills and estates.