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Publications
Victoria Legal Aid produces a range of free legal information written in plain language to help people work out their legal problems. These are regularly updated and listed below. You can subscribe to our regular email update to be notified when we have new or updated publications.
To get copies of our booklets you can:
- order printed copies by using our online order form
- download PDF copies (choose from the list below).
See How to order free publications online.
Do you need these booklets in a different format?
Please ring us on (03) 9269 0223 or email us at cle@vla.vic.gov.au so we can talk with you about what you need.
New and updated publications
- Resource kits for people working with refugee communities:
- Phones and internet: Your rights
- What you need to know before you buy or build a house (English, Dinka, Arabic, Burmese, Nuer, Chin and Karen)
- Your legal rights: A practical guide to everyday legal issues (Burmese, Karen, English)
- Law help guide and directory 2012
Information about the law by category
Australian law for new arrivals
- Family law in Australia fact sheets (English, Arabic, Chinese, Vietnamese)
- Phones and internet: Your rights
- What's the law? Australian law for new arrivals
- What you need to know before you buy or build a house (English, Dinka, Arabic, Burmese, Nuer, Chin and Karen)
- Your legal rights: A practical guide to everyday legal issues (Burmese, Karen, English)
Legal basics information sheets
- Legal basics 1 – Driving: how to stay safe and keep out of trouble
- Legal basics 2 – Driving rules: how to stick to the law
- Legal basics 3 – Fines: how to sort them out
- Legal basics 4 – Money problems: how to deal with debt
Young people
- Am I old enough? Common legal issues for young people
- Keeping out of debt: Your guide to staying out of the red
- Police powers: your rights in Victoria
- What's the deal? A kit to educate young people about legal issues
Debt, money and fines
- A workers' guide to fines
- Debt problems: the law, your options (formerly called Falling on hard times)
- Disagree with a Centrelink decision?
- Do not knock campaign
- Fines: your options for dealing with fines
- Keeping out of debt: Your guide to staying out of the red
- Telling Centrelink about your same sex relationship
- Weighing it up: a consumer guide to bankruptcy
Relationship breakdown and children
- Child support and adult child maintenance for over-18s (PDF only)
- Child support and parentage testing
- Child support fact sheets
- Child Support Legal Service
- Divorce workshops
- Fact sheets for separating families
- Family law in Australia fact sheets
- Having a grandchild in your care
- Roundtable Dispute Management brochure
- The role of an independent children's lawyer
- You and family law: a short guide
- You have been asked to supervise contact between a parent and their child. Do you want to do this? (PDF only)
Family violence, intervention orders and sexual assault
- Family violence intervention order publications
- Personal safety intervention orders – A guide to resolving disputes and protecting your safety
- Sexual assault: the law, your rights as a victim
- A victim's guide to support services and the criminal justice system
Drugs
Disability and mental health
- Administration order fact sheets
- Are you on an involuntary treatment order?
- Power of attorney and guardianship fact sheets
- Securing their future: for parents of children and adult children with a decision-making disability
- Take control: a kit for making powers of attorney and guardianship
Police and courts
- Going to the Magistrates' Court information sheets
- Just in case
- Police powers: Your rights in Victoria
- Road to court: a guide to traffic offences in the Magistrates' Court
- Your day in court: a guide for people who are representing themselves in the Magistrates' Court
Victims of crime
Where to get help
- Do you have a legal problem?
- Law help guide and directory 2012
- Legal problem?
- Public law library
- Regional office brochures
- Who pays for a grant of legal assistance?
VLA forms
Community legal education – reports and evaluation
- Family Harmony sessions for the newly arrived communities
- Shepparton sessions for newly arrived communities
Corporate information
- Client service charter brochure
- Privacy management policy
- Annual reports
- Disability action plan
- Cultural diversity action plan
Legal accuracy
The law changes often. We update our publications, but if you keep several copies of our booklets you may sometimes have old editions of a booklet. This means the law might have changed and your copy is wrong. To find out if it is up to date check the publication date, which is on the cover or in the first few pages. Remember to recycle any old copies of the brochures or booklets.