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Civil legal aid to be extended
07/11/2008
The upper disposable income threshold for financial assistance for civil legal aid is to be increased from £10,306 to £25,000.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said this means that more than a million more Scots will become potentially eligible for financial help towards court costs for civil actions.
He said the move will see three-quarters of all Scots eligible for free or subsidised legal aid in cases which could involve maintaining families, ensuring financial security or adequate housing or protecting employment rights.
Mr MacAskill said:
"Amid the global economic slowdown, the Scottish Government is not prepared to simply sit back and wait for things to get better.
"My ministerial colleagues and I have already identified a series of steps we're taking within our current responsibilities to help hard-pressed families and businesses, to improve financial advice to vulnerable individuals and to stimulate growth in the economy.
"I have long considered it unfair that people of relatively modest means can find themselves unable to pursue a complex and expensive legal action.
"As a first step towards correcting that unfairness we will increase the financial eligibility limits for civil legal aid with an appropriately tapered contribution regime.
"From next spring, the upper limit for disposable income will increase to £25,000 which should mean that around three quarters of the adult population will be potentially eligible for legal aid. For the first time in many a year, legal aid is being rolled out, not rolled back."
The Scottish Government is working with the Scottish Legal Aid Board to bring forward simplified and increased fees to for civil legal practitioners alongside the improved eligibility rules, Mr MacAskill added.
Around 42 per cent of people in Scotland currently are financially eligible for civil legal aid. Free support is provided for those who cannot afford to contribute to the costs of their legal advice and an element of security for others through a fixed contribution scale based on their financial circumstances.
In addition to qualifying financially, applicants must meet two other statutory tests: they must have a legal basis for the case and it must be reasonable in the particular circumstances of the case that they should receive legal aid (e.g. it may not be reasonable to grant legal aid to enable the applicant to sue someone who has no resources or where the applicant is able to receive financial help from other sources such as a trade union, insurance company or professional body).
Financial eligibility is means-tested on the applicant's disposable income (including deductions for maintenance payments and childcare or travel costs associated with work as well as an allowance for the costs of providing for dependants) and capital assets (including savings and investments but not their home).
Currently, applicants with annual disposable incomes of £3,156 or less pay no contribution; between £3,156 and £10,306 they subtract £3,156 from their disposable income and contribute up to a third of the result (depending on the costs of the case); and above £10,306 they are not eligible. Applicants must also have disposable capital of less than £11,847 and where they have more than £7,147 must make a contribution based on the difference between the two figures.
The proposed changes would maintain the two existing scales with a tapered system of contribution for those with disposable incomes between £10,306 and £25,000 so that those with higher earnings would pay a higher rate of contribution.
Mr MacAskill was addressing the two-day joint Scottish Legal Aid Board/Law Society of Scotland annual conference on legal aid at the Dunblane Hydro.