Advice and Assistance
This is a scheme administered by the Scottish Legal Aid Board which provides you with some initial legal help for advice, correspondence and negotiation, but not for court proceedings. In some cases, you may be assessed as eligible for Advice and Assistance subject to payment of a contribution towards your costs. This will need to be paid at the outset. If the work we carry out is less than your contribution, any overpayment will be refunded to you.
You should note that we are not able to provide legal services to you without the continuing approval of the Scottish Legal Aid Board. This means that from time to time, we have to ask the Board to approve further work. This can sometimes cause delays in progressing your case but regrettably this is unavoidable.
Although your legal expenses will be met in the first instance by the Scottish Legal Aid Board (subject to a contribution in some cases), the Regulations state that if you receive or keep any money or property as a result of the work we do for you, this must be used to pay your legal expenses. Any surplus will be returned to you. In effect this means that you may have to pay your legal expenses yourself at the end of the day. Find out more here.
If payment of your bill would cause you extreme financial hardship then we can ask the Scottish Legal Aid Board to meet your bill and if they consider that paying your own bill would cause financial hardship, they may agree to pay the bill. Please note that in these circumstances, we must retain sufficient funds from the money received to cover our costs in the event that our bill is not met by the Scottish Legal Aid Board, and to refund it if the bill is met by them.
Civil Legal Aid
Civil Legal Aid is for court actions. An application for civil legal aid requires to be supported by evidence to show that you have a case to argue as well as financial information from you, your spouse or partner and, if appropriate, your employer. You may be required to pay a contribution directly to the Scottish Legal Aid Board. You will be asked in advance if you are willing to pay the assessed contribution, usually by monthly instalments.
In some instances, work may be required on an urgent basis, before your Civil Legal Aid application can be assessed. The Scottish Legal Aid Board can offer urgent cover in some cases, subject to strict eligibility criteria. Please speak with one of our solicitors about this.
Legal Aid is not necessarily free. If you receive or keep any money or property as a result of the work we do for you, this will be used to meet your legal costs. More details about this can be found here.