Other rights and facilities

In terms of Regulation 15 of the Children’s Legal Assistance (Scotland) Regulations 2013 we must be satisfied that your client does not have any other rights and facilities potentially available, making legal aid unnecessary.

General rules:

• If we are not satisfied on these matters, we must refuse legal aid unless there is special reason for making it available
• If your client has a reasonable expectation of receiving financial help towards case costs from a body that they are a member of, they must give a written undertaking to pay us any sum received from such a body
• If your client is unable to redeem such rights or facilities, then we still may grant legal aid

Other rights or facilities could include, for example, assistance from Local Authorities or the Police Federation.

You must ensure that you ask your client about all potential sources of funding before applying for legal aid.  If we find that such sources of funding exist and we were not told about them, we will consider terminating a grant of children’s legal aid.