Changes to criminal law fees and guidelines

In response to significant legislative change across the criminal justice system, particularly youth crime, committals and bail, we have reviewed our fee structure and guidelines to ensure they align with the new legislation.

Effective as of 19 October 2026, our new guidelines and fee structures will better support panel practitioners by reducing administrative burdens and delay of payments and ensuring that fees better reflect the increasing complexity of bail and youth crime work.

We hope these improvements will make a difference to practitioners’ experience in delivering legal aid for clients.

Amendments to the Bail Act 1977 have increased the complexity of the legal tests for bail applications, requiring additional legal preparation and court hearing time. In recognition of these impacts and with the limited funding Victoria Legal Aid (VLA) received to respond to these legislative changes, we will increase the bail application preparation and appearance fees in the Magistrates’ and Children’s Courts. The fee increases are as follows:

• Bail application preparation in the Magistrates’ and Children’s Court from $226 to $362 

• Bail application appearance in the Magistrates’ and Children’s Court from $484 to $557.

Due to significant law reform in youth justice, we have made four guideline changes to our guidelines. These changes have been made to ensure that VLA’s guidelines reflect new legislative regimes, ensure appropriate representation for children and young people and improve payment arrangements for panel practitioners. These guideline changes cover funded casework services for children and young people with criminal matters commencing in the Children’s Court.

Means test exemption for children and young people

We will formally exempt children and young people aged up to 21 from the means test in relation to criminal charges which commence in the Children’s Court.

Higher Court trial guideline (guideline 4)

The changes clarify that the guideline which applies to funding higher court criminal trials also applies to children.

The introduction of the ‘adult time for violent crime’ legislation has meant that more children and young people will have their cases heard in the County Court. We have changed our guideline to ensure that those matters fall within guideline 4.

New guideline 5.2 for Early Diversion Group Conference (EDGCs) and Parole Stage Group Conference (PSGCs)

We have created a new guideline for EDGCs and PSGCs.

The Youth Justice Act created EDGCs and PSGCs as new group conference options. The creation of our new guideline will ensure that practitioners are able to provide representation in PSGCs and a future EDGC pilot.

EDGCs will take place pre-charge on referral from police, or post-charge on referral from the Children’s Court. The child’s legal representative must attend the EDGC. While EDGCs won’t be operationalised on commencement of the Youth Justice Act 2024, they are likely to be available in future. 

PSGCs commenced on 30 September 2026. They aim to support a young person’s transition from custody and successful completion of their sentence on parole. Legal representation at PSGCs is desirable to ensure that young people understand their rights, options and any legal risks to participation.

The means test exemption outlined above also applies to legal representation for EDGCs and PSGCs.

New guideline 5.3 for Support and Engagement Orders (SEOs) in the Children’s Court

We have created a new guideline covering SEO applications in the Children’s Court.

SEOs were established by the Terrorism (Community Protection) Amendment Act 2021. We have created a new guideline to ensure that children’s rights are protected.

In response to changes in the youth crime space, we have updated our fees as follows:

Increase to summary jurisdiction application (SJA) fee in Children’s Court

The SJA fee in the Children’s Court is increased from $445 to $890 to reflect the increased complexity of these applications.

Group conferencing fees for higher courts

We have introduced fees for attendance at group conferences referred by the County or Supreme Court.

The VLA Handbook currently funds attendance at a group conference when referred by the Children’s Court. The ‘adult time for violent crime’ changes make it more likely that the County Court will refer children and young people to group conferences at the pre-sentence stage, or as a restorative condition on a Youth Control Order. Legal representation is required at these group conferences. 

Adding new Youth Supervision and Support Orders to fee tables

We will fund attendance at planning meetings and reporting and monitoring hearings for Youth Control Orders and Youth Supervision and Support Orders in the Children’s Court and the higher courts.

Inclusion of new types of intensive bail supervision for children in fee tables

We have clarified that supervision hearings for electronic monitoring and enhanced bail supervision and support are funded in the same way that supervision hearings are funded for intensive bail in the Children’s Court.

The Justice Legislation Amendment (Committals) Act 2025 has made significant changes to committal and pre-trial procedure for indictable stream criminal matters.

In response to this, we have made our current interim fees for two indictable evidentiary hearings ongoing.

Section 198B interim County Court fees

We have made the existing fees for section 198B hearings in the County Court permanent, with a maximum of three days of payment for the court appearance. By making these fees ongoing, practitioners will no longer need to submit separate requests for payment, therefore reducing the administrative burden. The current interim fees that are now made ongoing include:

• application to Cross-Examine Witnesses – section 198B – $714

• appearance where Witnesses are Cross-Examined – section 198B – $1370.

Generally, these applications should not exceed three days of court time. A special disbursement for additional hearing days could be sought in exceptional cases.

Section 198A Supreme Court interim fees

Earlier this year, we established interim fees for section 198A of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009 in the Supreme Court. In order to reduce the administrative burden of special disbursement applications for practice practitioners, we are making the following interim fees ongoing:

• application to cross-examine witnesses – section 198A - $894

• appearance where witness/witnesses are cross-examined – section 2198A – $2197

There are also clarifications to the Handbook to including two existing fees that had not previously been included in Table F. These clarifications are being made so that practitioners are aware of the existence of these fees: 

Section 198A and 198B hearings (County Court) 

• Preparation (section 198A) - $935 

• Initial Directions Hearing Appearance Fee (198A) - $595 

There is also an amendment to the guidance notes in the Handbook on what is included as part of a trial day, to clarify that jury deliberation days are considered as trial days. (Noting that Counsel cannot claim an additional daily fee for jury deliberations if they are also claiming a trial day fee in another matter.)