Victoria Legal Aid (VLA) will pay lawyers whom lawyers engage as agents, either in or outside Victoria, on the same terms and conditions as VLA would pay the lawyers.
However, VLA will approve a payment for an agent only if VLA is satisfied that it was both:
- necessary for the lawyer to engage an agent
- a more economical use of legal aid funds than to have the lawyer perform the task.
If it is more economical for a lawyer to engage an agent than for the lawyer to perform a task, then VLA will require the lawyer to engage an agent.
If an agent (or counsel) is briefed in any matter coming within the tables listed below, then the brief fee must not be less than the appearance fee listed in the relevant table contained in:
- Fee Schedule 1 – Lump sum and other fees payable in criminal law matters
- Fee Schedule 2 – Professional costs, lump sum and other fees in civil law matters
- Fee Schedule 6 – Fees in war veterans’ cases.
The requirement that the lawyer must pay counsel's fee out of the relevant lump sum fee paid to them also applies to matters prior to 18 January 2011, as set out in Fee Schedule 7 – superceded fee tables in the VLA Handbook (September 2011).
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