What information should you supply with your children’s legal aid account?

When seeking payment the onus is on you to give us enough information to enable us to assess your account properly.

You have to give us enough information about:

• The nature of the work and, where appropriate, the extent to which the work done was reasonable.
• What documents were referred to where a fee for perusal or preparation is claimed.
• Justification for lengthy letters, statements, meetings or telephone conversations.

For the purpose of performing our functions under the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986 we may consider it necessary to request files, time records or any other information to assess your accounts and satisfy ourselves that the appropriate tests have been met; for example where there is insufficient detail to enable us to objectively assess the work done. You are not precluded from providing information because of solicitor-client confidentiality as we are bound by the terms of Section 34 of the Act.

We may also obtain further information from third parties such as the SCRA where such a step is felt necessary to fulfil our functions.