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► Legal Help
Legal Help
Finding a solicitor
The costs of legal help
Help in court
Personal Injury schemes
The information in this leaflet has been checked for accuracy at the date of printing. It will be updated and reprinted when significant changes occur. The leaflet is available in different formats on request.
May 2009
1. Legal costs generally
There are many ways of paying for legal advice. A good explanation may be found at www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_rights/legal_system/help_with_legal_costs.htm
2. Legal Advice - who provides it?
Call 0845 345 4 345 for legal help and advice: *Get free initial advice from a qualified legal adviser about Welfare Benefits, Debt or Education between 9am and 5pm weekdays (if you call outside office hours, just leave a message and you will be called back).
*If you are eligible for Legal Aid you can get further free legal help with your case by phone and post
*Find quality local advice services
*Order legal information leaflets *Listen to recorded messages about common legal problems 24 hours a day*
Only a solicitor or organisation with a contract with the Legal Services Commission (LSC) can provide publicly-funded legal help. Solicitors firms and other agencies funded by the Legal Services Commission can be found on
www.lawsociety.org.uk/choosingandusing/findasolicitor.law which lists all solicitors but the list includes solicitors who are not contracted to the Legal Services Commission. You will have to pay for the legal help and hourly rates are in the region of £150—£200 per hour.
3. Legal Help Scheme
The amount of help you receive under the Scheme is limited. There is an upper financial limit of work which may be provided though this varies from supplier to supplier.
1. You have to satisfy a financial eligibility test ( see section 5)
2. There has to be sufficient benefit to you, to justify work being carried out as the case starts and as it continues and….
3. It has to be reasonable for the matter to receive funding especially with regard to any alternative source of funds.
The Legal Help scheme no longer covers personal injury matters. See section 6.
4. Help at Court and Legal Representation Schemes
Within certain criteria, an application under the Legal Help scheme can be used to include the Help at Court scheme when a solicitor can speak on your behalf at a hearing e.g an application to suspend a possession order in a housing case.
The Legal Help scheme can also extend to cover a solicitor representing you at an immigration appeal tribunal or before an immigration adjudicator.
5. Financial Eligibility
Unless you receive certain types of welfare benefit, there are different levels of financial eligibility depending on the type of help you need. However, for basic advice in a solicitor’s office you need to check that you are eligible for the Legal Help scheme.
As a single person, if your gross income exceeds £2,657 calendar month you will not be eligible. If your income is less than £2,657 per month, you need to work out your disposable capital and your disposable income to see if you will get free help.
Disposable capital
If your capital is more than £8,000 you are not eligible
Disposable income
If you receive income support or income based jobseeker’s allowance you will
automatically be eligible otherwise:
Monthly income for students is calculated by taking the annual student loan for living costs and dividing it by 12.
If you receive a grant or bursary the presumption is that the annual total should be divided by 12 though this is not specifically stated in the guidance
Parental contributions should be worked out on an annual basis & divided by 12
Some social security benefits are ignored e.g housing benefit,
Weekly income should be multiplied by 52 and divided by 12
Calculation on a monthly basis
Income
Loan for living costs/maintenance
Grant
Earnings from work
Child benefit and Child Tax Credit
Others e.g. Aston Bursary and/or Subject Specific Allowance
Total income =
Deduct from total income
Tax and National insurance contributions
Rent or mortgage (max. deduction £545 per month unless you have dependants)
Childcare
Employment expenses £45 (automatic if you have income from work)
Partner or spouse £159.25
Dependant under 15 £243.81
Dependant 16 or above £243.81 (this is not a misprint)
Maintenance you pay out.
Total disposable monthly income =
If less than £733 per calendar month -eigible for free Legal Help Scheme
6. Personal Injury work
The Legal Help scheme does not covered personal injury work, except for clinical negligence cases and cases where the personal injury arises from an alleged assault or deliberate abuse.
Most personal injury solicitors offer a free 30 minute interview to assess your chances of making a claim in the first instance.
Solicitors specialising in personal injury work use either a conditional fee agreement (known as 'no win no fee') or those who are part of the Accident Line, a commercial organisation, offer 'after the event insurance'. Accident Line can be contacted on Freephone 0800 192939 or www.accidentlinedirect.co.uk
Do you have legal costs insurance? Many people have it added to an existing insurance policy and then forget it is there. Check out any policy you hold.
7. Remember the Statutory Charge.
If you use the Legal Help scheme or the Help at Court scheme for either a family or a clinical negligence matter and, as a result, win money or preserve property; the winnings must be used to offset the legal bill. This is called the Statutory Charge. There are exceptions to the rule but it is unlikely to affect the majority of cases a student might be involved with.
8. Don't Qualify?...Other Options
Some solicitors offer a 30 minute free diagnostic interview in order to advise you of your chances of success in pursuing legal action.
9. International Students.
International students may be eligible for free advice by using the Legal Help scheme explained earlier. Legal Help does not count as a 'public fund' and therefore does not affect your immigration status. Before going for Legal Help, please ask at the Advice & Representation Centre for an income check to ensure that legal advice will be free or use the method of calculating monthly income outlined in section 5.
Even if your family provide you with an annual income, it must be calculated on a monthly basis including any earnings from part time work. It is not clear how money provided specifically for tuition fees or residence fees will be treated. We suspect that tuition fee money will be ignored once paid to the University but residence fee money will be taken into account as income and then deducted as an allowable deduction
10. Court Costs (except for Help at Court scheme on page 2)
If you need help in court you are assessed for either Civil Legal Aid (for the Civil Courts) or Criminal Legal Aid (for the Criminal Courts). The financial criteria for these two types of legal aid are often more generous than those for Legal Help. See also the Statutory Charge section above. Your case has to be able to justify needing legal representation.
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