VALS provides criminal law assistance.

The type of criminal law work VALS does is:

• Summary and indictable offences
• Most Driving offences

VALS' criminal lawyers travel to the regions within Victoria. They are allocated a region to ensure continuity of service provision in each region and share the court work in Metropolitan Melbourne.

Custody notification

Victoria Police are required to notify VALS within an hour when a person of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent is taken into custody. Victoria Police notifications are known as E* Justice Notifications

The requirements of Victoria Police are outlined in the Victoria Police Manual *Operating Procedures, Instruction 113-1 Taking a person into custody, Paragraph 4.3.5 ‘ Indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islanders’)