Legal aid is a Good Thing, if you can get it.

Legal aid is public funding for certain kinds of legal proceedings, including most kinds of court cases. It is administered by the Legal Services Commission (or "LSC" as it's affectionately known). You can choose whichever lawyer you wish, provided the lawyer's firm has a licence (or "franchise") to undertake the case.

Legal aid funding covers all your own legal costs associated with the case: court fees, solicitor's fees, barrister's fees, expert fees - pretty much everthing. It doesn't cover your opponent's costs. So if you are ordered to pay your opponent's legal costs then this has to come out of your own pocket. The LSC won't fund them.

Most (but not all) cases are subject to a means test. If you pass, you might for eligible for public funding without any contribution. Or you might be eligible for funding subject to a contribution of income and/or capital.

There is also a merits test. The LSC has to be satisfied that it's reasonable to fund the case. That means you won't get public funding for "hobby" litigation, nor if the LSC considers that the case won't bring you any real benefit - for example, if the likely legal costs which you'll have to pay (more of this in a moment) outweigh the financial benefit to be gained in the case.

So this public funding is free then? Not quite. For some cases, it is entirely free, apart from any contribution under the means test. Those are cases where you don't stand to make a financial benefit in the proceedings. An example of this would be an application for contact with a child. Or an injunction to restrain someone from being violent.

But if you make a successful claim for money or property, or if you successfully defend a claim by someone else against you for money or property, then you have to repay the legal aid funding you've received: in those cases, the funding is a loan, not a grant. This applies, even if the case is settled out of court.

Also, there's a nasty sting: if the same legal aid certificate covers two or more types of proceedings, then the claw-back provisions apply to all the proceedings. For example, if in the child contact case above, the certificate also covers a claim for money or property in divorce proceedings, then you could find yourself having to repay the costs associated with the contact proceedings from out of the money recovered in the associated financial proceedings. Tricky, eh? It's worth checking this point carefully with your solicitor before you start the legal proceedings.

If the money or property you recover (or preserve) in the proceedings is tied up in a house for yourself (or you wish to invest it in a house for yourself) then the LSC will usually agree that you can postpone repayment of the legal aid money due to them, provided the amount due can be secured against your new house and you agree to pay interest on the amount.

So, the actual benefit of legal aid is....?

1. It's free (apart from any contribution) unless you recover or preserve any money or property.

2. You don't have to fund the case upfront, and you may have the option of deferring repayment of your own legal costs if you're investing any "winnings" in a house for yourself.

3. Your legal bill is checked independently either by the Court or by the LSC to see that it is fair and reasonable. (This is primarily to protect the legal aid fund from excessive claims by solicitors, but it has the knock-on effect of protecting you too.)

4. Legal aid rates of charge are much lower than for privately paying clients. In this area, perhaps around 50% lower.

5. A firm has to pass the LSC's quality control criteria each year in order to qualify for a legal aid franchise.

Sounds good. Does Buglear Bate do legal aid?

Er... no. We used to, but we got too used to living indoors and eating. Not many firms in this area still do civil (non-criminal) legal aid. At the last count, the only firms in Woking still heroically providing civil legal aid are Fulchers and Foster Wells.

There are still firms in Woking providing public funding for criminal cases, but we don't know anything about them. Try the Citizens' Advice Bureau or local court for a list of local firms. Or, if you have a sense of humour and a bit of time on your hands, you could try phoning the LSC itself.

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Disputes concerning children in divorce

Money and Property disputes in divorce

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