Access to justice

Legal aid

Legal aid isn’t available in civil cases unless in cases for children’s rights, mental health, and cases involving claims for asylum.

Legal help: helplines

Civil legal advice (CLA) is a government funded scheme for providing advice. It gives telephone advice for problems such as: debt, housing, family issues etc.

Legal help: citizens advice bureau

They give free advice to anyone face-to-face, over the teleophone or by email/webchat. The advice mainly concerns issues such as social welfare problems, debt and legal matters.

Legal help: law centres

They offer free, non-means tested legal advice to people in their area. They offer advice and sometimes representation. These are in areas where there are few solicitors. Many of their clients are disadvantaged.

Legal help: trade unions

They usually offer their members free legal advice for any work-related problems. Many also offer advice for other legal problems. For example, personal injury claims.

Legal representation

LAPSO 2012 set out factors which must be considered before claiming legal funding. These are: cost of the service, benefit of the service, chance of success and is it in the public interest? In order to qualify, they must pass a Means test. They automatically qualify if they are: on benefits, in full time education or on low income.

If legal funding is refused, parties can ‘privately fund’ their case.

Private funding - own resources

Anyone who can afford it can pay for a solicitor/barrister to deal with a legal matter. There are firms of solicitors in most towns. Consulting a solicitor can be expensive. The average rate for a solicitor outside of London is about £150 an hour.

Private funding - insurance

Legal insurance against legal costs. This cna be ‘before the event’ when there is no known legal claim. More commonly is ‘after the event’ insurance. This is where someone who is taking a case to court insures against losing and having to pay the other side’s costs.

Private funding - ‘no win, no fee’

Also called conditional fee agreements. If tthe case is lost, the client pays nothing. If the case is won, the client pays. The fee is usually capped at 25% of the winnings. The solicitor sets a normal fee and a “success rate” which is an agreed percentage of the client’s winnings.