I don’t think an applicant should get legal aid. What should I do?

If your opponent has applied for civil legal aid, you can tell us of any concerns you have about their application or give us relevant information.

This is called 'making representations'. You can do this even after legal aid has been granted.

You do not need a solicitor to make representations on your behalf, you can do it yourself.

You can send your views to us in a letter, within 14 days of our telling you about the application (or within 28 days if you live outside the UK), to: Civil Applications Department, Scottish Legal Aid Board, Thistle House, 91 Haymarket Terrace, Edinburgh EH12 5HE.

We cannot decide who should win a case – that is the job of the courts. However, you should let us know if you believe that any or all of the following apply:

• the applicant is not eligible financially for legal aid
• there is no legal basis for the case
• it is unreasonable to use public funds for the case.

We will use the information you give us to help decide whether we should grant, refuse or withdraw the applicant’s legal aid. Even if we refuse or withdraw legal aid, the applicant may still wish to take the case to court privately.

If you want to give us information about the applicant's financial eligibility, it is important to note that we assess eligibility on income for 12 months after the date of the application.

For capital, the applicant should tell us about any significant change in circumstances throughout the case.

Where a person is receiving advice and assistance (the initial form of legal aid available to help resolve a dispute before going to court), the solicitor assesses their eligibility based on their financial position over the 7 days prior to the application.

The same process for making rpepresentations does not exist for advice and assistance but if you believe that the person may not have declared income or capital to us, you should write to the Advice and Assistance Department at the above address.