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Greater access to justice for those in need
Wednesday
13 March 2002
The Scottish Legal Aid Board welcomes the
changes to legal aid announced today by the Justice Minister,
Jim Wallace during the debate in Parliament on the Justice
1 Committee's report on its inquiry into legal aid.
Jean Couper, Chairman said:
"We are particularly pleased to see these
changes in financial eligibility and the increase in the amount
exempted from clawback in matrimonial cases. These changes
augment those announced last year, which extended to 20 months
the period over which applicants can pay their contribution,
and changed the way specially urgent work is dealt with. Together
they represent a significant improvement in civil legal assistance
and will help more people who cannot afford to pay for legal
representation to access it."
Journalists please contact: Charlotte
Townsend or Janet Nixon, tel 0131 226 7061, email nixonja@slab.org.uk
Notes to editors
- Legal aid allows people who would not
otherwise be able to afford it to have the help of a solicitor,
and in some circumstances an advocate, for their legal problems.
To receive legal aid, applicants must consult a solicitor
who will help them complete an application.
The Board itself does not provide a legal aid service -
it pays solicitors and advocates to do this.
- The Scottish Legal Aid Board is responsible
for managing legal aid in Scotland. It is a non-departmental
public body set up under the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986.
- The Board's main tasks are to consider
and then grant or refuse applications for legal aid; to
scrutinise accounts and pay solicitors and advocates for
the legal aid work they do and to advise Scottish Ministers
on legal aid matters.
- In 2000/2001 advice and assistance was
given in nearly 330,000 cases, civil legal aid was granted
in nearly 14,000 cases, and criminal legal aid was granted
in over 73,000 cases.
- Total gross expenditure on legal aid in
2000/2001 was £130.5 million. If an assisted person
gains or keeps any money or property as a result of their
legal aid, some or all of it may have to be paid to the
Board to meet the costs of the case. This is known as "clawback".
£9.3 million was recovered from contributions, expenses
and amounts recovered from assisted persons following the
successful outcome of their cases. Just over £1 million
was recovered in "clawback".
- Justice Minister Jim Wallace today announced
the following changes to legal aid eligibility.
1. Advice and assistance is granted
by a solicitor, without reference to the Scottish Legal
Aid Board, if the client meets the financial tests. A
contribution may have to be paid; from April, the maximum
contribution will be £107. At present, in order
to be eligible for advice and assistance, one has to have
disposable capital of under £1,000. This figure
will be increased to £1,300.
2. Civil legal aid is granted by the Board and applicants
have to meet three statutory tests: probable cause, financial
eligibility and reasonableness. If someone has disposable
capital below £3,000, no contribution from capital
is sought towards the cost of the case. Between £3,000
and £8,560, a contribution may be sought but generally
above £8560, legal aid is not available. These figures
will change to £6,000 and £10,000 respectively.
3. At present, the first £2,500 of winnings in certain
matrimonial cases is disregarded in assessing any sum
to be paid to the Board towards the legal aid costs of
a case. This figure will be increased to £4,200.
- In October 2001, the Deputy Justice Minister
Iain Gray, announced two other significant changes to civil
legal aid, to contributions and special urgency cases
- introducing a 20 month payment period
for contributions, and allowing solicitors to provide
an estimate of case costs to which contributions may be
initially restricted
- enabling applicants whose solicitors
are providing legal aid in a case of special urgency to
pay contributions directly to the Board in instalments,
rather than as a lump sum up-front to the solicitor.
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