legal profession

Legal profession

Guidelines, guidance manuals, category codes and eligibility limits

Scottish Legal Assistance Handbooks are our principal online source for all guidance on legal assistance, and are updated regularly. The Handbooks are provided free of charge. You can access them from our Handbook section.

There are some materials that are produced as seperate publications and that are linked to from our Handbooks. These materials are available on this page. For any other guidance you should refer to the Handbooks.

If you wish to order printed copies of any of these materials, please visit our publications centre or email general@slab.org.uk or call 0131 226 7061 with details of the title.

Contents

Civil legal assistance
Criminal legal assistance
Children's legal assistance
Accounts
Category Codes Card and Equality Card
Eligibility limits

Guidance and manuals	Date published

Civil legal assistance

Civil advice and assistance and ABWOR

We now publish guidance in our comprehensive Civil Legal Assistance Handbook - visit the Handbook section of the site to read the Handbooks or subscribe to them

Category Codes Card – use this card to identify the correct code to use and to check if a civil advice and assistance subject is standard or diagnostic.	June 2008

Equality Card – you should provide this card to the applicant to enable completion of Section H of the advice and assistance application forms.	June 2008


Civil legal aid applications

We now publish guidance in our comprehensive Civil Legal Assistance Handbook - visit the Handbook section of the site to read the Handbooks or subscribe to them

Criminal legal assistance

We now publish legislation on criminal matters in our Criminal Legal Assistance Handbooks - visit the Handbook section of the site to read the Handbooks or subscribe to them.
From 30 June 2008 reforms to summary criminal legal assistance were made. Guidance on the changes is included in our reform section.
Criminal advice and assistance / ABWOR

Category Codes Card – use this card to identify the correct code to use	June 2008

Equality Card	June 2008

Criminal legal aid

Code of Practice for Criminal Legal Assistance	April 1998


Children's legal assistance

We now publish guidance in our comprehensive Children's Legal Assistance Handbooks - visit the Handbook section of the site to read the Handbooks or subscribe to them

Category Codes Card – use this card to identify the correct code to use	June 2008

Equality Card – you should provide this card to the applicant to enable completion of Section H of the advice and assistance application forms.	June 2008

Accounts

Legal Aid Fees and Taxation Guidelines - note that this is a very large file	1994

Advice and assistance
Accounts synopsis forms for civil and criminal advice and assistance/ ABWOR	30 May 2007

Accounts synopsis guidance for children's advice and assistance	July 2008

Civil accounts
We now publish guidance in our comprehensive Civil Legal Assistance Handbook - visit the Handbook section of the site to read the Handbooks or subscribe to them.

Criminal accounts
Criminal proceedings accounts synopsis - guidance and examples of new forms in use from 1 April 2008 Visit our forms section for supplementary account versions of the new forms	April 2008

Criminal Accounts Assessment Manual - Fixed Payments	28 March 2002

Criminal Accounts Assessment Manual	11 September 2000

Criminal Legal Aid Fees and Taxation Guidelines	March 1998

Payment of witness fees in criminal legal aid cases

Category Codes Card and Equality Card

Advice and assistance Category Code Card	June 2008

Advice and assistance Equality Card The Equality Card is also available in other languages.	June 2008

Eligibility limits

Effective from 27 October 2008
Keycard 2008 - October - includes references to employment and support allowance - also includes changes made in June 2008 for reforms to criminal advice and assistance/ABWOR. This Keycard is only available online and updated printed versions are not available.	October 2008

Current printed Keycard Keycard April 2008- printed edition issued and effective 7 April 2008 Keycard 2008 - June 2008 updated version Keycard 2008 - one page insert that you can print off that lists the criminal changes effective 30 June 2008 which should be made to the current issued Keycard April letter with details of changes