Despite finishing the 2015-16 financial year $2.7 million in the black and managing to extend its services to 2.2 per cent more clients than in the previous 12 months, innovation and services executive director Peter Noble said increases in family violence and child protection cases meant VLA was “stretched to capacity”.

He said the organisation’s last major deficit led to a tightening of its eligibility guidelines, making it harder for people to qualify for assistance.

The organisation was reviewing the means test, but even if a loosening of its criteria was recommended, as Mr Noble expected, it would not have the funds to help more people. 

Instead, VLA was being compelled to direct funds to its most serious cases, in which clients were facing imprisonment.   

“[That] means we've had to drive services away from early stage matters where people are coming into contact with the justice system for first time,” he said. 

Those missing out on government-funded legal services included family violence victims: less than 40 per cent of people applying to court for an intervention order are found a duty lawyer. 

Breaches of intervention orders were also increasing; 26 lots of legal aid and 89 duty lawyer services were granted in Bendigo alone last year.

“We would like to make sure all parties in family violence proceedings are represented, because we think that’s when we can get the best outcomes,” Mr Noble said, adding he was “confident" the government took this issue seriously.  

The organisation’s annual report follows the Victorian government’s Access to Justice review, released this month, which recognised front-line staff were stretched thin.

VLA recommended to the review it receive a $42 million boost from the state government and another $30 million from Canberra in order to meet demand. 

Victorians at risk of involuntary psychiatric treatment are not receiving the legal assistance that could see them avoid unnecessary procedures. 

Just 15 per cent of those being compelled to undergo treatment were granted legal aid in the last financial year. 

Of the 128 occasions someone was being considered for electro-convulsive treatment, just one-quarter were represented by a lawyer.

In cases where legal assistance was available, nearly half were not mandated to undergo shock therapy.

But across the border in New South Wales, more than three-quarters of people headed for involuntary care were represented. 

Victorian Legal Aid’s Peter Noble said Victoria was still acclimatising to its new mental health act, instituted in 2014, but said it was an arena where there was still a “major gap” in legal services. 

“We’ve been through somewhat of a revolution,” he said. 

“To the governments credit, they're beginning to resource that, but it's only the beginning.”