Legal services

A free legal advisory service is available to help you interact with the Disability Royal Commission. Your Story Disability Legal Support is independent from the Royal Commission. It provides free legal advice to:

  • people with disability
  • their families
  • carers
  • supporters and
  • advocates.

Your Story Disability Legal Support is funded by the Australian Government and is delivered by National Legal Aid and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services.

Some of the reasons you might want to contact Your Story Disability Legal Support include:

  • You used the name of an organisation or person in your story
  • You have a confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement that stops you sharing some, or all, of your story
  • You are concerned about payback for sharing your story
  • You are worried that you or someone else will be unsafe, lose access to services or employment, or your rights will be affected
  • Your story talked about current or past court matters
  • Your story talked about something you did, that you should not have done or think may be illegal
  • You want support to get ready for a private session with the Royal Commission.

Call Your Story Disability Legal Support on 1800 77 1800 Monday to Friday or visit their website.

If you are deaf, or have a hearing or speech impairment, go to the National Relay Service website and give 1800 77 1800 (the Your Story Information line) as the number you want to call.

If you need to organise an interpreter in your language,

  • call Your Story Disability Legal Support on 1800 77 1800 and ask for an interpreter. The client information officer will make the arrangements, or
  • call the Translating and Interpreting Service on 131 450 and ask for Your Story Disability Legal Support on 1800 77 1800.

Legal financial assistance

You may be able to get financial support for reasonable legal costs when you are:

  • being called, or granted leave to appear, as a witness at a hearing of the Royal Commission
  • being requested to attend, or attending an interview of the Royal Commission
  • complying with a notice to give information or a statement in writing that will be used as evidence in the Royal Commission, and/or
  • complying with a notice to produce issued by the Royal Commission.

If you have been called by the Royal Commission in your personal capacity you will be eligible for legal financial assistance. If your organisation has been called, you may be eligible for legal financial assistance, subject to an assessment of whether the organisation can meet the cost of its legal representation without incurring serious financial difficulty.

The legal financial assistance scheme is administered by the Attorney-General's Department, independently of the Royal Commission.

For further information, visit the Attorney-General's Department's website or contact Legal Financial Assistance Casework, within the Attorney-General's Department, on 02 6141 4770 or 1800 117 995 (between 8:30 am and 5:00 pm, Monday to Friday), or by email at finass@ag.gov.au.

If you are deaf, or have a hearing or speech impairment contact the Attorney-General's Department through the National Relay Service and give 02 6141 4770 as the number you would like to call.