Archived Grant Opportunity View - GO5775

A legal financial assistance scheme to assist individuals and entities to meet the costs of legal representation and disbursements associated with being requested to engage with the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme.

Legal financial assistance may be provided to entities – including individuals – for their reasonable legal representation and disbursement costs if they are:

·         called, or granted leave to appear, as a witness at a hearing of the Royal Commission

·         requested to attend or are attending an interview of the Royal Commission

·         requested to provide a written statement that will be used as evidence of the Royal Commission

·         required to comply with a notice to produce issued by the Royal Commission.

If your organisation has been called by the Royal Commission, the organisation will be assessed to determine whether it can meet the cost of its legal representation without incurring serious financial difficulty. If you have been called in your personal capacity, you will be exempt from an assessment of financial circumstances.

Assessment timeframes

Completed applications will be assessed within 21 days. Incomplete applications will not be assessed. We will notify you if your application is incomplete to request missing information.

If you receive less than 21 days' notice of appearing or attending an interview of the Royal Commission, we will try to assess your application before the date of your appearance

How payments are determined

If a grant is approved, we will only pay after the work has been performed and you have lodged a claim with us. The Commonwealth legal financial assistance - Assessment of costs sets the maximum amount that we can pay.

$607,000.00

Access to the scheme is through direct application to Legal Financial Assistance Casework at the Attorney-General's Department.

Legal financial assistance for people engaging with the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme.

Alternatively, apply by downloading the application form (in GO Documents), and emailing the completed form to finass@ag.gov.au with any attachments.

If you cannot email the application, or need further information, telephone Legal Financial Assistance Casework on 02 6141 4770 or 1800 117 995 between 8:30am and 5:00pm, Monday to Friday.

Legal Framework

The Commonwealth Guidelines for Legal Financial Assistance 2012 establish the Royal Commission and Inquiries scheme.

The Commonwealth Guidelines for Legal Financial Assistance 2012: Addendum for the Royal Commission into Robodebt modify how the guidelines operate.

All documents can be found in GO Documents.