- Published:
- Wednesday 21 October 2026 at 11:12 am
We are currently experiencing longer than usual wait times for the assessment of grant applications and requests for further funding. We recognise the impact these delays can have on your ability to provide timely services to your clients.
Increased demand for our services has caused delays and backlogs. We are working to increase our capacity to meet this demand and reduce the delays. We thank you for your patience and understanding.
Our current response times
Our average current response times for grant applications that require assessment by one of our grants officers are below. These times may vary.
| Area of law | Average response times |
|---|---|
| Family law | 3-4 weeks |
| Criminal law | 5 weeks |
| Civil law | 9 weeks |
We are doing our best to prioritise matters with urgent hearing dates. However, we recognise this is not always possible due to the volume of grant applications and enquiries that we receive. We encourage you to submit your applications as early as possible.
Resources to support you
Please make use of the resources below to help you submit a grant application as smoothly as possible.
- Our Practitioner Support Officers can provide training and support to assist your teams with ATLAS applications and general enquiries regarding the Handbook. Please email grantstraining@vla.vic.gov.au.
- Our contact list for Grants and Quality Assurance sets out where to direct specific queries. This will assist in ensuring your queries get to the correct team as quickly as possible.
We sincerely apologise for the delays and thank you for your patience. If you have any urgent queries, please reach out to us at grants@vla.vic.gov.au(opens in a new window).
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