Legal Aid

I am aware that legal aid for representation at court has now been withdrawn.

My query is, if an application was sent in before the deadline of the 31st March, would it have had to follow the normal eligibility rules?

Basically my application was made by the deadline but has been rejected. I met the eligibility criteria for legal aid so what other possible reasons would there have been for rejecting it?

I haven''t received the reason why it has been rejected yet but should soon.

There could be various reasons and without more information it is difficult to speculate. Although you meet the financial criteria it may be that the LSC/LAA considered your prospects of success were not sufficient. Legal aid certificates are also restricted by geographical area, so, for example, there are only 600 this year in the Southampton area. Even if you qualify, if all the certificates have been allocated, you will not get legal aid.

There is, of course, loads of advice on this forum, freely available.

Thank you Forseti.

I''ve had ongoing problems with my solicitor making my application for legal aid for over 8 months now. It''s helpful to know there are other reasons it may have been declined other than not being eligible and it not being submitted in time.

Am I entitled to know the reason it was declined or can my solicitor refuse to tell me that? There are several reasons why I am concerned it has been refused due to my solicitor''s incompetence, for example they have not forwarded to me the letter from the Legal Aid services this time when it has been done as a matter of procedure in the past and an offering of some legal representation with no fees to be paid by myself.

Yes, I think you are entitled to know. If your solicitor has been neglectful or incompetent you may have grounds for further action.

It may be that you would still be eligible - depending obviously on your circumstances - and that a renewed application, perhaps through a different solicitor, would be successful.

Are you certain the application was made? Have you contacted the LAA?

I wouldn''t be successful with another solicitor now as I do not qualify for legal aid for legal help under the DV eligibility.

However you have just made a very good point. I do not know for certain that an application was made. I only have my solicitor''s word on that. Considering I was told it had definitely been made a few months back and then received a letter in writing weeks later confirming it hadn''t and was being sent off that day, I have very little confidence in being told the truth.

I wasn''t aware I could contact them myself to check if it was made. I will do that first thing on Monday and press ahead with getting a copy of the rejection letter if indeed there was one.