CIVIL LEGAL ASSISTANCE

You are married, but seeking a divorce from your spouse, who has moved out of the house, leaving you with your two children.  Your total income including all tax credits, child benefit and maintenance payments is £67,000, and you have disposable capital of £12,000.

You are paying mortgage, income tax, council tax, national insurance, maintenance and travel costs totalling £36,800.  As your disposable income, after making the allowances set annually by the Government for your dependent children is £24,348, you would not previously have qualified for legal aid.

You now qualify for financially civil legal aid. 

You will have to pay a maximum contribution based on income of £10,540.  Normally you will pay this in 48 instalments of £219.58.

You will have to pay a contribution based on capital of £4496, 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.