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Solicitors
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Legal Aid
(also called Public Funding)
For many types of cases you may be eligible for Legal Aid, depending on your financial means and the merits of your case. If Funding is granted you may have to pay a contribution which in most cases is paid by you for as long as the case lasts. This contribution is the only amount you have to pay unless the Statutory Charge applies.
access law do not undertake Legal Aid work for criminal cases
The Statutory Charge
If you are successful in your case and it is considered that you have recovered or preserved property or money (either as a result of settling the case or as a result of agreement after proceedings have been issued), the
Legal Services Commission (LSC) may require that some or all of your legal costs be paid from the money or property recovered by you. How much is deducted will depend on what the other party pays towards your costs, if anything. The amount recovered by way of costs from the other party rarely covers the entire costs involved in preparing and conducting a case and the LSC is entitled to deduct the difference from your award or settlement. This deduction is called the Statutory Charge and can take various forms, including a possible charge over your assets. A leaflet giving more information about the Statutory Charge can be downloaded direct from the LSC website here.
You are likely to be eligible if you can answer YES to the questions below (or visit the Legal Services Commission's eligibility calculator page
here[The eligibility for Funding varies with the type of Public Funding you are claiming and/or the type of case. Eligibility rates given below are as of 7th April 2008]
Legal Help
Do you have capital of less than £8,000.00?, AND
Do you receive Income Support or Income-Based Job Seekers Allowance, OR is your gross income less than £2,530.00 per month (if you have 5 or more children add an extra £145.00 per month per child for the fifth and subsequent children) and net income less than £698.00 per month (after tax, National Insurance, housing costs, maintenance, childcare etc. and a monthly allowance for dependants as follows)?
for each dependant child the allowance is £228.52
for a dependant Partner the allowance is £149.69
(your partner cannot be a dependant if they are your opponent in the dispute)
Civil CLS Funding
Do you have capital of less than £3,000.00 OR less than £8,000.00 when a contribution would be payable
Do you receive Income Support or Income-Based Job Seekers Allowance, OR is your gross income less than £2,530.00 per month (if you have 5 or more children add an extra £145.00 per month per child for the fifth and subsequent children) and net income less than £698.00 per month (after tax, National Insurance, housing costs, maintenance, childcare etc. and a monthly allowance for dependants as follows)?
for each dependant child the allowance is £228.52
for a dependant Partner the allowance is £149.69
(your partner cannot be a dependant if they are your opponent in the dispute)
Note that a contribution is payable if you have a net income of between £290 and £672 per month, varying according to the actual amount.
Applying for Public Funding
Various forms have to be completed in order to apply. We will supply and complete these on your behalf. To assist us we will require a number of personal details from you including:-
National Insurance Number
Place and Date of birth
Surname at birth
Previous Legal Aid Certificate reference number (if any)
Details and proof of your capital, income and any benefits you receive
access law
hold a Specialist Quality Mark (SQM) which means that the standard of care and conduct of publicly funded cases that we deal with is approved by the Legal Services Commission.Our SQM permits us to provide specialist advice in Family and Mental Health matters together with general advice for other permitted case types such as Debt, Housing and Welfare Benefits.
In order to ensure that law firms providing Legal Aid deliver a consistently high standard of service they are subjected to regular audits by the Legal Services Commission. On 20th April 2006 we passed this LSC audit.
The standards of conduct and care required by the Legal Services Commission mean more than just a logo on a door or letterhead; they indicate a reliable level of service for ALL clients. Private paying clients benefit because the systems and procedures introduced work equally well for (and are applied to) non- Legal Aid cases.
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This page last updated 8 - May - 2008
Author: G. L. Hewstone
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