Notification of a grant of A&A, provision of ABWOR and your client’s declaration

You must ensure that you send us an online application within 14 days of the commencement of advice and assistance.

You can submit an online criminal advice and assistance notification. Use it for:

Telling us you have granted advice and assistance cases before a direct measure or summary complaint has been served, or if the direct measure is accepted (initial limit £50)
Telling us you have granted advice and assistance following the issue of a summary complaint or if the direct measure is challenged (initial limit £115)
Telling us you have granted advice and assistance for advice in connection with a solemn matter (£215)
A request for an increase in authorised expenditure.

Notification of an ABWOR grant

You can notify us that you are providing ABWOR. Use it for telling us that you have granted ABWOR for:

A JP court case on a fixed payment basis (initial limit £500)
A sheriff court case on a fixed payment basis (initial limit £750)
Parole Board proceedings (initial limit £215)
Other post-conviction breach/review proceedings (initial limit £215)
Double jeopardy proceedings (initial limit £215)
An obstructive witness order in respect of witnesses apprehended (initial limit £215)
An initial grant of advice and assistance
A request for an increase in authorised expenditure under ABWOR.

Notification in connection with police station advice and representation

You can notify us that you are providing advice and assistance or ABWOR under the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016. Use it where the advice and assistance is for:

Your personal attendance and your client has exercised the right to a consultation [section 44 of the 2016 Act] (initial limit £250)
Your personal attendance and your client has exercised a right to have a solicitor present [section 32(2) of the 2016 Act] (initial limit £600)

You may also use this where:

The ABWOR is for review of a condition [section 19 of the 2016 Act] (initial limit £385)
The ABWOR is for review of a condition of an undertaking [section 30 of the 2016 Act] (initial limit £385)
The advice by way of representation relates to an application for authorisation for questioning by a prosecutor [section 36(1)(a) of the 2016 Act] (initial limit £385)

Prior authority to provide ABWOR

You can also submit an online application to ask for our approval to provide ABWOR for:

Removal of a disqualification from driving
Proceeds of crime proceedings
Post-police station proceedings before the sheriff

Recovery proceedings (specification of documents procedure)

If you admit your client to criminal advice and assistance, you must send the online application within 14 days of commencing A&A. If you have to apply to us for approval to make ABWOR available, ABWOR only begins on the date on which we grant your request.

It is important that you refer to the category codes card when providing advice and assistance.

Late notification of grant of a criminal A&A

You must submit your application within 14 days of commencing advice and assistance. If you do not submit the application on time, it may be rejected. We can only accept late applications if we consider there is a special reason to do so [Regulation 11 of The Advice and Assistance (Scotland) Regulations 1996].

Your client’s declaration

For every online advice and assistance application, you must obtain a declaration signed by your client to be retained by you in your office.

You can do this by either printing the completed online application or the client declaration [AA/LAO/CRIM].

It is the solicitor who makes the grant of Advice and Assistance and some types of ABWOR and not SLAB or the court.

Providing and signing the declaration forms and obtaining financial information and verification are important parts of the application process.

Following the guidance provided will assist you to comply with the Regulations to enable SLAB to properly pay your account as well as undertake any later quality assurance checks, including peer review.

Assessment of financial eligibility for criminal advice and assistance, financial limits in Keycard and contribution