About the Scottish Legal Assistance Handbooks

You can subscribe now for the latest editions of the revised Scottish Legal Assistance Handbooks. The Handbooks are our principal online source for all guidance on legal assistance, and are provided free of charge.

We have published completely revised Handbooks on legal assistance in civil, contempt and children’s matters, as well as a legislative edition covering criminal matters. They are available for use now.

About the Handbooks

We aim to make the Handbooks the key reference material for the legal aid professional and to provide you with the right information, when you need it. Each Handbook includes:

• all current legal aid legislation
• all our policies on applications, and practical advice covering all stages of a case, including
  • applying for, and provision of, advice and assistance and ABWOR, and our approach to different types of case
  • applying for, and provision of, legal aid, and our approach to different types of case
  • procedures after legal aid is granted – for example, the requirements for sanction for certain types of work, reporting procedures, amendments to grants or changes in circumstances
  • clawback and expenses in civil cases
• information about registering to provide different types of legal assistance
• information on accounts issues (this section will be added as an update to the civil volume)
• an easy to use contents list, index and search service for the online editions.

The Handbooks incorporate all our previously issued guidance notes on applications, such as the Advice and Assistance Guidelines, the Civil Merits Guidelines, guidelines on sanction for counsel, expert witnesses, and unusual expenditure, and other guidance published in mailshots and Recorder articles.

Keeping the Handbooks up to date

We will issue regular updates to the Handbooks throughout the year, to reflect changes in legislation, our guidance and to provide information that assists with day to day working practices, such as how to complete our application forms.

Publication of the Handbooks will also lead to changes in the information we send you. Over the next months, we will no longer publish separate guidelines publications and we will change the way we provide updates on changes through mailshots and The Recorder. Instead, these will be made through updates to the Handbook.

The new Handbooks support our move from paper to providing our services through Legal Aid Online. We will mainly publish our Handbooks on our website, as this will offer the most interactive, easy to use and up to date edition.

Formats available and charges

The Handbooks are available in the following three formats:

• easy to use online format on our website, with updates announced by email. We encourage you to subscribe to this format as we expect that eventually this will be the only available format for the Handbooks.
  
• CD-ROM – this will be a copy of the online edition, for firms without internet access, with updated CD-ROMs provided a few times a year. We expect CD-ROM subscribers to move to using the online web edition.
  
• on paper in loose-leaf format – this will be available only in some circumstances to those who are unable to use a CD-ROM or web version, with updates provided a few times a year. However, we expect to stop offering the paper edition in 2007.

As part of our commitment to providing the profession with the appropriate legal aid reference material, when you need it, we are providing the Handbook to firms free of charge. For paper and CD-ROM, we will provide one copy per office. We also offer subscriptions to people who are not solicitors, such as partners in the justice system and in advice agencies.

How to subscribe

To subscribe for any of thel four Scottish Legal Assistance Handbooks, we require you to register for them so that we can ensure updates are provided to you. Visit our subscription page now >>

We will contact subscribers with more information including details of when you will receive the Handbook.

Your comments

We are keen to hear your views on the new Handbooks. We hope you will make suggestions on any topics or issues that could be added to our guidance, or give us your ideas for how to make it easier to use to suit your working practice. We will be able to respond to feedback on a regular basis through our updates. Our website will offer several easy ways to enable you to suggest changes:

• give us your general feedback on how easy it is to use
• tell us about a change to the text or make a specific suggestion

At this stage, if you have any questions on subscribing, please contact our Communications Department by emailing handbook@slab.org.uk