Legal Aid Clients

The Legal Aid Agency, as part of the Ministry of Justice, provides funding for most criminal cases. You may be entitled to free advice, assistance and representation depending upon your means. In some cases, you may have to make a financial contribution to the Legal Aid Agency for part of your costs. It could be that you are not entitled to legal aid because of your means or because of the type of case and so you have to pay privately.

A number of factors are taken into account when looking at the funding of your case.

At the Police Station

We are able to attend and provide you with free advice and assistance at the police station regardless of your means.

We are able to provide free telephone advice to any person held in custody regardless of your means.

We are able to attend and provide free advice and assistance to any person being interviewed under caution by a person with the power of arrest outside a police station.

In some cases, we can attend free of charge when a person is interviewed in other circumstances.

Magistrates Court, Crown Court and Court of Appeal

Legal aid Representation Orders for the Magistrates Court are granted to people who are financially eligible and it is in the “interests of justice” for an Order to be granted. If you earn less than £12,475 per year then you are automatically financially eligible. If you earn more than this then it may depend upon what outgoings you pay. The Legal Aid Agency decide whether it is in the “interests of justice” for the Order to be granted taking into account many factors including the type of case, likely sentence, mental health problems, previous convictions.

Legal Aid Representation Orders for the Crown Court are granted to all people with a case in the Crown Court (with a few exceptions). The Legal Aid Agency will carry out a means test on all applicants and may grant an Order subject to a financial contribution. This contribution is payable directly to the Legal Aid Agency and does not affect the representation provided by us.

We encourage all our client’s to apply for a legal aid Representation Order and provide assistance in completing the application.

A legal aid calculator is available on the Ministry of Justice website. Please follow the link: https://www.gov.uk/check-legal-aid.