Forms, online mandates and materials

For every advice and assistance, criminal or civil legal aid application, transfer and criminal review (of a decision to refuse legal aid) application made online, your firm must obtain and retain the client’s signature, to be stored in your office. You can do this by either printing the completed online application or the client online mandate. You do not have to send us a copy, but as part of our audits and quality checks, we will randomly verify that applications or mandates have been signed.

Once you have successfully completed an application online there is an option to print the application. This is the simplest and most efficient way to obtain the client’s signature if you are completing the application online while the client is in your office. At the bottom of the printout, there is a space for the client's signature.

Ensure that both the client and solicitor sign and date this and that you keep it in the client’s file.

If you are not completing the application online while the client is in your office, you should use the appropriate Legal Aid Online mandate to record key information and capture the applicant's and solicitor's signatures. All mandates must be:

• Signed and dated by the client
• Signed and dated by the solicitor
• Completed in full, including details of the type of ABWOR granted, where applicable
• The criminal review requires only the client’s signature.

In some cases we have also provided a data capture form to capture additional information. We have produced this following feedback and it is designed to help your business processes. It allows the solicitor to record the information required for the application. The solicitor can then use this to personally complete the application online, or give it to a member of staff to complete online, or dictate the details to a member of staff to complete the application online. The data capture form is not required to be signed or retained.