The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act comes into force on 1 April 2013 bringing about significant changes to the availability of legal aid and meaning that very few people will be eligible for funding in civil family cases.
Under the current law legal aid is available for private family law cases including divorce, financial and children matters where the financial circumstances of the party in question mean that they do not have sufficient income to be able to afford to pay for representation from a solicitor. The changes will mean that funding is removed and, regardless of your financial circumstances, you will not be able to benefit from legal aid and therefore legal advice, unless you pay privately for it.
Some cases will continue to be funded where they involve domestic violence, forced marriage and child abduction, but otherwise there will be no funding whatsoever.
This will of course mean an increase in the number of people representing themselves, regardless of the complexity of their case, where they can not afford to pay for a Solicitor.
In response partly to these changes, and in a bid to bring some cost certainty to what can be a financially uncertain and difficult time generally, we have designed a fixed fee divorce package to enable clients to budget and manage the cost of getting divorced. We are also working on being able to offer other fixed fee packages, in financial and children matters.
At the outset of all matters we give our clients an estimate of what the costs will be and keep them updated as to costs throughout, so that they are fully aware of these and there are no nasty surprises.
We are also able to support people representing themselves (in a bid to keep costs down), known as litigants in person. You may well be able to complete some of the paperwork and more straightforward parts yourself, but if you feel that you could benefit from our expert advice at certain points, we will provide that support as and when you need it
You will therefore be able to control your own case and keep the costs to a minimum, whilst having the the reassurance that we are there for you when you need us.
To find out more about the services we offer please contact the family department by calling 0114 266 6660 and ask to speak with Lindsey Canning or alternatively you can email [email protected].
