Legal Aid Commission (ACT)
A short factsheet on the ACT's Legal Aid Commission (trading as Legal Aid ACT): its establishing Act, its functions, and its governance by a statutory board.
Learning outcomes
- State the Legal Aid Commission's establishing Act and its core function providing and funding legal assistance.
- Identify the Commission's governance structure under the Act.
- Explain why the Commission is not a prosecuting authority.
Act: Legal Aid Act 1977 (ACT).1
Established: 1977. The Commission operates publicly under the name Legal Aid ACT.
Purpose: the Commission provides and funds legal assistance — advice, duty-lawyer services, and grants of legal aid for representation — to people who cannot otherwise afford it, primarily in criminal, family and civil law matters that meet the Commission's means and merit tests.
Powers conferred under the Act
The Commission is established under s 6 of the Act and is governed by a board, matching the governance model NSW's and WA's equivalent Legal Aid Commissions use.1 Its core powers are to decide applications for legal aid against the Act's guidelines, to employ or brief lawyers to act for aided persons, and to fund community legal services.
Is it a prosecuting authority?
No. The Commission funds and provides legal representation and advice; it plays no role in prosecuting offences, including for people it does not ultimately assist.
No specific leading case on the Commission's functions is cited here.
Self-check
- Have I stated the Commission's function as providing and funding legal assistance, not deciding legal disputes itself?
- Have I identified the Commission's board as its governing structure under the Act?
- Have I avoided confusing Legal Aid ACT's access-to-justice role with the separate, differently scoped legal aid commissions in NSW and WA?