The Legal Aid Office (Queensland) was established in December 1979, and evolved from state and federal government recognition of the need to provide financially and socially disadvantaged people with access to legal representation and other legal services.

Before it was established, state and federal governments funded different organisations to provide these services. The state based organisation—the Legal Assistance Committee of Queensland—operated from 1965 to December 1979, and was only granted aid for state law matters. All case work was referred to private practitioners. It was funded from a percentage of interest earnt on Solicitors' Trust Accounts.

The federal government established the Australian Legal Aid Office in 1974. It granted aid to people falling under Commonwealth Government responsibility including:

The relationship between these two separate organisations was confusing to clients and the legal profession.

To improve the efficiency of legal services being offered to financially and socially disadvantaged people, responsibility for administration of the legal aid offices was handed to the states in 1978. This decision facilitated the merger of the 2 organisations and the establishment of the Legal Aid Commission of Queensland. As the commission was a statutory authority, it was accountable to the state minister but independent of any governmental direction or influence.

In 1991, a state government initiative merged the Legal Aid Office (Queensland) with the Public Defender's Office. The newly expanded Legal Aid Office provided clients with access to family, civil and all criminal law services.

Legal Aid Queensland was established in 1997 under the LegalAid Queensland Act 1997 and is a statutory authority managed by its own board. It replaces the former Legal Aid Office (Queensland), which was run by the Legal Aid Commission of Queensland.

We give legal help to financially disadvantaged people about criminal, family and civil law matters.

See a full list of what we do.

We are committed to providing a quality service to all our customers, as outlined in our servicecharter.

How we are funded

We are funded by the Queensland Government to undertake state law matters (ie criminal law and civil law matters). Other sources of funding for state law matters include client contributions and interest on invested Legal Aid Queensland funds.

We are funded by the Australian Government to undertake Commonwealth law matters (ie family law matters). The funding priorities setout by the Commonwealth for family law matters stipulate protecting the safety of a child or spouse who is at risk, is to be given highest priority for grants of aid in family law matters. The Commonwealth also stipulates that as far as possible, priority should be given to resolving family law matters through non litigious processes, ie dispute resolution and counselling.

Governance

Our organisation is governed by the Legal Aid Queensland Board and a chief executive officer.

Beatts J M