Legal Aid is available for almost all legal
matters involving Scottish Law. This of course includes most
aspects of Family Law. The only real exception is attendance
at Children’s hearings. If you do qualify for Legal Aid it
may however be possible for us to attend at a hearing with
you.
The current civil Legal Aid system can be seen as divided
into two main categories: Legal Advice and assistance and
Civil Legal Aid.
Advice and assistance is available initially for almost all
cases and covers all necessary preparatory work. A
contribution to your fees may be payable by you depending on
your weekly income and the amount of capital you have. At
present if you have less than £79 "Disposable income
" each week then you will get Legal Advice and Assistance
without having to pay a contribution. From £ 79 up to £186
per week there is a sliding scale applicable and the maximum
you will have to pay, regardless of the total cost of the
work, if you do qualify is £107. If you are liable to a
contribution then it may be possible to pay this in
instalments.
If you are in receipt of Income Support , Working families’
tax Credit, Income based Job Seeker’s Allowance or Disabled
Person’s Tax credit and you have no capital then our
contribution is automatically nil.
Advice and Assistance is granted by your solicitor so the
application can be dealt with very quickly at your first
interview.
If a Court action is required in order to have your case
dealt with you will require to apply for Civil Legal Aid. The
Scottish legal Aid Board administer this form of assistance
and it is strictly means tested. If you are on Income Support
or Job Seeker’s allowance you will not have to give details
of your income and outgoings. However if you have alternative
sources of income you will have to complete forms showing what
your means are. In many cases, and depending on your means,
the Legal Aid Board may require you to pay a contribution in
this type of Legal aid also. The principle behind this is that
you will not be asked to pay what you cannot afford and any
contribution imposed can be paid up in instalments.
Basically if you can satisfy the Legal Aid Board that you
qualify financially and that you have what is referred to as
"probable cause" you will be granted Legal Aid to
pursue your case in the courts.
If you find yourself in a situation where your require the
urgent protection of the court you will not have to apply for
legal aid at first. A certificate can be granted
retrospectively provided very strict time limits for
submission of the application are kept to. In this situation
your solicitor will be able to advise you about your
eligibility at your first interview.
Not all solicitors in this area of practice do legal aid
work so you should check first before arranging to see them
otherwise you may have a very brief first interview!
At McClure Collins & Co we believe that everyone should
have access to the Justice System regardless of their means.
For this reason we have always conducted Legal Aid work and
intend to do so in the future.
