How long does an application take?

The time it takes for a decision to be made on your application depends on the type of case.

Criminal legal aid

We are normally able to take a decision on your criminal legal aid application within a few days if we have all the information needed about your case and your financial circumstances.

Where we need more information, we will tell you within a few days what we need and how you can send it to us.

Civil legal aid

Once we have all of the information we need about your case and your financial circumstances we will normally be able to take a decision on your application within 28 days.

If we need more information from you about your finances we will let you know.

If we need more information from your solicitor about the merits of your case we will get in touch with them.

If we have to wait for any additional information it may mean we take longer to deal with your application.

We usually also have to tell the opponent in your case that an application for legal aid has been made.

An opponent gets 14 days (or 28 days if they live outside the United Kingdom) to send us any representations they might want to make about your application.

Children's legal aid

We are normally able to take a decision on a children’s legal aid application within a few days if we have all the information about your case and your financial circumstances that we need.

If we need more information we will contact your solicitor to ask for this.