Seniors Rights and Advocacy Service, Legal Aid WA

The Legal Aid Commission of WA is an independent statutory body that started in 1978, as the first dedicated legal aid commission in Australia. We are now the largest single provider of legal aid services in Western Australia, employing nearly 300 lawyers and support staff in 9 offices across WA.

We aim to promote access to legal services and information for all West Australians.

These are some of the services we provide:

• Civil law – Legal Aid WA provides assistance in a range of civil law matters. There are many different areas of civil law, some of which overlap with criminal or family law mat-ters.

• Criminal law – Providing legal advice and representation on criminal charges is a core func-tion of the work done by Legal Aid WA. All of our offices provide both duty lawyer services and ongoing representation in criminal law matters.

• Family law – Legal Aid WA provides a wide range of services for family law and children's matters. The majority of family and children's matters are heard in the Family Court of WA and the Children's Court at Perth. However, nearly all of our regional offices can provide ad-vice and representation to people involved in protection and care applications, and on a range of family law issues.

• Resources and Community Legal Education – Legal Aid WA creates resources for communi-ty legal education (CLE) projects. These resources are often developed in partnership with community legal centres or other legal aid organisations.