Victoria Legal Aid Chambers is a specialist group of in-house advocates led by Chief Counsel Julia Munster.
The group comprises criminal law public defenders, family and children's law advocates and civil law advocates, with many of the advocates practicing in more than one area.
Victoria Legal Aid Chambers:
- provides representation for clients with a grant of legal assistance
- conducts strategic and test case litigation to challenge the law
- is involved in justice and law reform activities
- co-ordinates briefing across Victoria Legal Aid’s practice areas
- develops initiatives to ensure quality advocacy for our clients.
Representation and advice
Chambers advocates provide high quality representation for clients with a grant of legal assistance in criminal law, civil law, child protection and family law. Advocates appear in all Victorian courts and tribunals, the Federal Court, the Family Court and the High Court of Australia.
Chambers advocates can be briefed to appear for clients by internal and external lawyers. Advocates also provide internal lawyers with advice on legal issues and professional legal training.
Find out about briefing Victoria Legal Aid Chambers.
Strategic advocacy and law reform
The aim of strategic advocacy is to remedy a legal problem or change a policy or process to benefit both an individual client and the broader community.
An important aspect of strategic advocacy is test case litigation, in which individual cases are used to test or challenge the law or its application. Our advocates appear in focused test case litigation to clarify points of law and influence those who make, interpret and apply law and policy.
Chambers advocates are also involved in justice and law reform activities.
Co-ordinated briefing
Chambers also includes a co-ordinated briefing function to ensure that our briefing practices across family, civil and criminal law are transparent, co-ordinated and equitable.
Special programs
The Trial Counsel Development Program provides training opportunities to selected Junior Counsel by partnering them with senior trial advocates in criminal trials.
The Block Briefing Pilot commenced in mid-2012. It is designed to ensure quality and timeliness on the circuit courts. The pilot seeks to brief single defence barristers to conduct the entire list of a nominated circuit of Victoria Legal Aid funded matters.
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