Women’s Legal Service Victoria (Women’s Legal) welcomes Friday’s National Access to Justice Partnership funding announcement from the Commonwealth Government that reflects the critical role members of Women’s Legal Services Australia (WLSA) play in responding to gender-based violence. 

Legal support is vital to a person’s recovery from family violence. It can include getting intervention orders, developing safe parenting plans, securing safe living arrangements, fairly splitting debts or getting a new visa.  

As the specialist, trauma-informed state-wide women’s legal service in Victoria, Women’s Legal is uniquely placed to support the legal needs of women who have experienced family and sexual violence, as well as building the capacity of community legal centres to improve access to justice and tackle postcode discrimination. 

Women’s Legal CEO Claudia Fatone said everyone deserves to live free from violence, no matter their income or where they live.   

“We work every day to ensure that every woman, no matter where she lives, or what visa she is on, can access best practice family violence legal support. Friday’s announcement means we are one step closer to achieving this.” 

“Our leadership in women’s legal services reflects our deep commitment to supporting and improving access to justice for women experiencing family and sexual violence. 

“The National Access to Justice Partnership is critical for us to continue delivering essential legal, financial counselling and social work services, alongside advocacy, law reform, capacity building and training.” 

“We welcome the opportunity to work closely with the Victorian Government around the allocation of funding to ensure we can continue to provide trauma-informed integrated legal support to women across the state.” 

Women’s Legal also welcomes the funding of WLSA as a peak body.  

“This is a historic achievement that will strengthen the sector’s capacity to address the unique legal needs of women,” Claudia Fatone said.  

About Women’s Legal Service Victoria: 

Women’s Legal is a not-for-profit specialist community legal centre. We work alongside women to address legal issues arising from family violence and relationship breakdown, and support them to make informed choices and live free from violence. 

We provide high quality trauma informed legal services for Victorian women, with a wraparound model of service delivery where clients are also supported by social workers and financial counsellors. 

Women’s Legal specialises in family violence, family law, migration law, child protection law, victims of crime assistance, and sexual assault – recognising the intersection between the jurisdictions.