CIVIL LEGAL ASSISTANCE

You are single, with no children.  You earn £32,000 pa, and you have savings and other assets worth £8,000. 

You pay a mortgage of £7,200 pa, income tax of £5,865, national insurance payments of £3,520 and council tax of £1,400.  

As this makes your disposable income £14,015 you would not previously have qualified for legal aid.

You qualify financially for civil legal aid.  You will have to pay a maximum contribution based on income of £4031.20.  Normally you will pay this in 48 monthly instalments of £94.32.

You will have to pay a contribution based on capital of £496, which is normally paid in one lump sum.

But – talk to your solicitor – if they think the case will cost less than the maximum contribution we assess you should pay, we may be able to restrict your contribution. (But if the case eventually costs more than they estimated, we may still have to ask you to pay some or all of the rest of the assessed contribution.)

And you may be able to get some or all of your contribution back if

• the court orders your opponent to pay the costs of the case (and your opponent pays these) or
• you pay more in contributions than the cost of the case.