Duty to report whether or not submitting a claim on the Fund

It is a reporting requirement in terms of Regulation 26 of the Civil Legal Aid (Scotland) Regulations 2002 that you let us know whether you intend to submit an account, or submit a nil claim for a client.

Once an action concludes, or you stop acting for a client, you must let us know whether or not you intend to lodge a legal aid account.

This is particularly important in circumstances where your client has been assessed as liable to pay a contribution or has recovered or preserved property.

Complete online synopsis form

Even if you do not intend to make a claim on the Fund by submitting an account, you must complete the online synopsis form , which only takes a few minutes.

This is to confirm that you are submitting a ‘nil’ claim and that you will not be charging privately for any work done while the legal aid certificate was in force.

Time limit for account submission

Please also remember that any legal aid account must be submitted to us within four months after the completion of proceedings in respect of which legal aid was granted unless you have a special reason for late submission.

Without your account, we cannot:

• pay you what you are due
• confirm the amount the applicant is due to pay us
• confirm whether they are due a refund of any sums that have already been paid towards their contribution.