Overview of reasonableness factors

Section 14(1)(b) of the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986 requires us to be satisfied that it is reasonable in the particular circumstances of the case that your client should receive civil legal aid. This test gives us a very wide discretion.

Our statutory responsibility is to assess whether your client has probable cause and whether it is reasonable to make legal aid available. We will not prejudge issues that are matters for the court to decide.

We will only grant applications that meet the tests for probable cause and reasonableness set out in our guidance. We would encourage you to send us applications that are fully complete to avoid continuations or refusals followed by review, including relevant information where your client’s protected characteristics relate to the case in the context of the factors we assess.

While we cannot have an exhaustive list of the circumstances which would meet the  reasonableness test, this guidance tells you about the key issues you should address.

Before we can grant civil legal aid we must consider:

• The estimated prospects of success for the case.
• The prospects of practical change as a result of a positive outcome from the case where the remedy available is not a financial one.
• The prospects of financial recovery as a result of a successful outcome in a case where the remedy available is a financial one.
• The degree of risk of the court action being premature.
• The estimated cost of the case.