Signing applicant declarations on Legal Aid forms during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is changing the way the Legal Aid and private legal practitioners provide legal services to Tasmanians in need. To comply with social distancing requirements practitioners are increasingly providing services by telephone and email.

To assist with this Legal Aid will not require practitioners to obtain a clients signature on applications for assistance. Practitioners can take the required declarations by phone instead of having the application form signed in person.

The legal practitioner will read out the application conditions and the applicant’s declaration, and ask the applicant to confirm their agreement to the acknowledgements and authorisations in the declaration. The practitioner will also complete the Solicitor’s certificate as required and proceed to lodge the application through the LACT e-lodge system. A record is to be kept of the declaration on the client file.

Procedure for signing the Applicant Declaration on Legal Aid Commission of Tasmania application forms during the COVID-19 pandemic

  (180 kb pdf - 3 pages)

 

Last updated: 29/04/2020