New streamlined policy on criminal Interests of Justice test is live

23 March 2021

A simplified approach to the assessment of the Interests of Justice (IoJ) test for summary criminal legal assistance and ABWOR has gone live.

Our recent update gives full details of the change and its benefits.

New guidance available

We have updated our legal aid guidance on the Interests of Justice test. This can be found in the following sections:

The IoJ policy statement and our decision-makers’ guidance is available on our Guidance on the Administration of Legal Aid (GALA) pages.

We have updated Legal Aid Online so that the interests of justice sections will no longer be displayed in sheriff court cases.

There are no changes for JP court cases. The current interests of justice questions still require to be completed.

For more information

Please contact Marie-Louise Fox, Director of Operations

E: foxma@slab.org.uk

Related News

Criminal

Consultation launched about our policy on ABWOR for the removal of disqualification from driving cases

25 September 2023

We have launched a consultation today about our policy on the ABWOR merits test which we apply in removal of disqualification from driving cases.

Criminal

Report on findings from the Criminal Quality Assurance Scheme for Criminal Legal Assistance for 2019 to 2023

7 August 2023

Report setting out the statistics, issues, and findings from the Criminal Quality Assurance scheme for the four-year period 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2023

Criminal

Drafting solemn accounts prior to 29 April fee reform changes

12 April 2023

This update explains the transitional arrangements included in the 29 April changes affecting solemn accounts - and advises on halting drafting online accounts

Criminal

New common queries section to help with Criminal ABWOR cases

8 March 2023

We have added a new section to our legal aid guidance with answers to the most common enquiries we receive on Criminal ABWOR cases.