Changes to Legal Aid Queensland’s grants of aid, professional fees and means tests are now effective. Grants of aid for child protection matters have been redesigned to better align to court processes. From February onward, the standard counsel preparation fee for pre-trial hearings in the District Court will increase from $192 to $270; the valuers fee for property arbitration matters will increase from $300 to $400; and prisoners who are facing committal on charges where the penalty on conviction is 14 years or less (non-specified matters) will have increased access to representation. Means testing has also been changed so that where clients’ disclosed income is below the Henderson Poverty Line, clients are no longer required to make a contribution to the cost of their legal services; and a 3% increase to the income thresholds within the means test has been in effect from November 2018.
