Business and farm help

If you have any interest in a business or farm, Victoria Legal Aid (VLA) requires you, your business entity, and any ‘Financially associated person’ (FAP) having an interest in the business/farm to make a full financial disclosure.

To do this, the applicant must send documentary proof of the following items. It should be scanned by the practitioner, and sent electronically to VLA. We will not accept paper-based documentation.

You must submit the following:

• profit and loss accounts for the business for the previous 12 months
• tax return for the business for the last completed financial year
• personal tax return for the applicant
• (if the FAP also benefits from the business), the FAP’s tax return
• financial institution statements for the business, the applicant, and any relevant FAP for the three months immediately prior to the date of the application for assistance
• any other document that will assist VLA in ascertaining the true financial position of the applicant, the business/farm, and any relevant FAP.

Procedure for attaching these documents

For simplified process matters, please attach the documents via the ‘submit correspondence’ link after you have submitted the application. Please quote the VLA file number, which appeared when you logged the application for assistance. For assistance on how to attach the documentation, follow the information below for 'VLA assessed' matters, and use the similar screen for uploading in the 'submit correspondence' function.

For VLA assessed matters, you will need to:

• scan the documents into your computer, and give them a file name in your computer’s directory
• select the ‘submit’ button when you reach that stage of the application for assistance. You will then be taken to the ‘attach supporting documents’ screen
• select ‘show file upload area’ and then select ‘browse’
• select your file from your computer’s file directory. Those directories will be displayed. Then select ‘open’ and then ‘upload file(s)’ and then select ‘continue’.

Please note that the submission of financial documents will mean that the application will be manually processed.