Tasmania Legal Aid is an independent statutory body.
We provide legal information and advice, representation, minor assistance, mediation and legal education to all Tasmanians.
Our purpose is to enable our diverse Tasmanian community to access legal services, address their legal problems, understand their rights, navigate the legal system and get the assistance they need. We work towards a vision that the Tasmanian community is safe, respected and has their voices heard. To achieve this we work with our clients, staff, legal partners and community for better laws and an effective legal system.
FAQs
What areas of law do you work in?
We work in criminal law, civil law, and family law.
Our criminal law team go to court to represent people, whether for a bail application, or mental health diversion or drug diversion. We represent clients at hearings in the Magistrates Court, trials in the Supreme Court, as well as Lower Court Appeals and appeals in the Court of Criminal Appeal. We also have designated lawyers for young people.
Our civil law teams provide a wide range of general legal information and advice services through our free Legal Help Line 1300 366 611, online chat and walk in clinics at our offices (Legal Help team). Our program teams also provide specialist legal services to seniors who are experiencing abuse (Senior Assist team), people who want to review NDIA decisions (NDIS Appeals team), people who have guardianship or mental health hearings at TASCAT (Mental Health and Disability team) and victim survivors of institutional sexual abuse (TasVOCAL team).
Our family law team provides specialist services to people affected by family violence, especially children, and mediation services for separating couples.
What lawyer will I get?
We deliver legal services through our in-house lawyers, and we use private lawyers too. If someone doesn’t have a lawyer and qualifies for a grant of aid, they may get a lawyer from TLA to work with them. If someone has their own private lawyer and they qualify for a grant of legal aid, we will pay the private lawyer to do the work. Sometimes we can’t get a lawyer from TLA to do the work and so we get a private lawyer to do it instead. In this situation someone can’t choose which lawyer they get, but if someone is not happy with their lawyer, they can talk this through with their lawyer to find a solution.
Where can I get more legal information?
We run Community Legal Education sessions for schools, community groups, and workplaces. Please email us at cle@legalaid.tas.gov.au if you want to have someone meet with your group. You can call us on 1300 366 611 Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm to speak with a lawyer for free. You can also use our Legal Chat at the bottom of our website – type in your questions and a lawyer will write back to you. This is also available Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm.
What other legal resources can I get?
We provide a wide range of legal information resources that are available to the community including fact sheets, posters and brochures. Find them here. This website has lots of information on it too – use the search bar above to type in key words related to your question.
What other organisation do you work with?
We collaborate with a range of other community service providers to meet the needs of the community. We have a partnership with Anglicare who provide case workers for our Senior Assist program, we also have Memorandum of Understanding with Women’s Legal Service of Tasmania and Tasmania Aboriginal Legal Service for our joint legal work. We also regularly meet with other community legal centres especially for coordinating legal information in the community.
Do you publish an annual report?
You can read our latest Annual Report or browse from the archives.
Who is on the board of Tasmania Legal Aid?
Our Board consists of 5 members:
Chair – Jules Scarlett
Director – Kristen Wylie
And members: Philippa Morgan, James Hipwood and Gavin Wailes.
What is the organisational structure of Tasmania Legal Aid?
What is your strategy?
Our Strategic Plan 2023-27 sets an exciting course over the next four years, strengthening our engagement with our community, and collaboration with our partners and key stakeholders.
Our Vision is for Tasmania to be a place where: The Tasmanian community is safe, respected and has their voices heard. Through the Strategic Plan we commit to contributing to achieving this vision.
Our priority areas over the next three years areas are: People, Communication and Collaboration. We aim to make our services more accessible for Tasmanians across the State. We will continue to work with our partners to improve the legal system.
Our improved service response will have a particular focus on supporting children and young people, people experiencing family violence, disability and building the wellbeing and resilience of our clients and staff.
The Strategic Plan benefitted from the input of our stakeholders and we thank all those who contributed to its development.
How can I work for Tasmania Legal Aid?
Jobs at Tasmania Legal Aid are posted on the Tasmanian Government job website.
- Once you have entered the jobs site, under Browse By Agency select Justice.
- Scroll through the notices there to find ones relating to the Tasmania Legal Aid.