Civil Legal Assistance Handbook January 2010
This Handbook contains guidance to the legal profession about advice and assistance and legal aid for civil matters. It contains
•
guidance on all aspects of applying for advice and assistance and legal aid, and procedures after a grant or refusal
•
amendments in January 2010 to paragraph 9.21 to clarify the steps solicitors should take, and payments we will make, under regulation 16(3)(b)
•
minor amendments in December 2009 to chapter 8, templates 46 and 47, dealing with the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003
•
amendments in October 2009 to paragraphs 2.33, 8.10, 10.1, 13.91, 14.1, 15.2, 16.11 and 16.21 to replace references to the House of Lords and Judicial Committee of the Privy Council with references to the Supreme Court
•
legislation relating to civil advice and assistance, legal aid and contempt of court, as amended (up-to-date as at 1 October 2009) (NB – the changes made in October to the regulations in respect of Supreme Court cases do not apply in respect of proceedings in the House of Lords where before 1 October 2009 the proceedings concluded and a question or dispute as to the amount of fees or outlays allowable to the solicitor, or as to the amount of fees allowable to counsel, was referred for taxation to the Auditor of the Court of Session.)
•
all links to keycard and category codes card updated April 2009
 
o
To find a topic, click on the symbol to the left of the main chapter heading that covers that topic. The table of contents will then display the headings within that chapter.
o
Chapter 2 of the applications guidance section summarises the steps involved in carrying out legal aid work, and contains links to the more detailed information in later chapters.
o
Throughout the Handbook, you will find links to other relevant sections, and to the legislation. Just click once on blue underlined text to move to the linked text.
 
TO OPEN A (PRINTABLE) PDF VERSION OF THE HANDBOOK
You can open pages of the handbook as PDF documents, by clicking on the symbol in the top right hand corner of your screen. This allows you to print pages, although we recommend you not to do so unnecessarily, since they are likely quickly to become out of date.
 
If you want to check whether we have made any changes to the Handbook since you last looked at it, we now have a page showing changes made to the commentary section since April 2007. We also have a page with answers to some questions we have received about using the Handbook.
 
We would welcome your views on the content of this Handbook and how easy you find it to use. You can complete a short questionnaire to:
 
o
give us your general feedback on how easy it is to use
o
tell us about a change to the text or make a specific suggestion
 
If you are using this online edition of the Handbook, you should ensure you have subscribed to receive information on updates and changes – you can subscribe now on our website.