1. Introduction

Question 1

What does the legal aid scheme enable?

Answer 1

a client to obtain free or low-cost legal services, usually subject to meeting a means and a merits
test.

Question 2

How is Eligibility and procedures governed

Answer 2

mainly by the Civil Legal Aid (Merits Criteria) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/104) and the Civil Legal Aid (Procedures) Regulations 2012 (SI
2012/3098)

Question 3

Who administers the LA scheme?

Answer 3

by the Legal Aid Agency (LAA), an executive agency of the
Ministry of Justice

Question 4

what is outside the LA scope?

Answer 4

private children cases, financial applications and divorce are outside
the scope of the scheme unless the client can demonstrate that they have been a victim of or are
at risk of domestic violence, or, in children cases, that the case is for the purpose of protecting
a child who would otherwise be at risk of abuse.

Question 5

how is domestic violence defined in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of
Offenders Act 2012 (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 2013 (SI 2013/748)

Answer 5

‘any incident, or
pattern of incidents, of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse
(whether psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between individuals who are
associated with each other’.

Question 6

what is needed to receive LA due to DV?

Answer 6

evidence of the violence.

Question 7

what kind of evidence is acceptable in proving DV?

Answer 7

evidence of an arrest for a domestic
violence offence,

a protective injunction having been made in the past,

or a report from a
health professional that an examination showed injuries/condition consistent with those of a
victim of domestic violence. (Similar prescribed evidence is required to demonstrate that a
child is at risk of abuse.)