The Community Legal Service (Financial) Regulations 2000

Financial eligibility

3.—(1) The following services shall be available without reference to the client’s financial resources:

(a) services consisting exclusively of the provision of general information about the law and legal system and the availability of legal services;

(b) initial legal advice consisting of such amount of Legal Help as is authorised under a contract to be provided without reference to the client’s financial resources;

(c) Legal Representation in proceedings under the Children Act 1989 applied for by or on behalf of:

(i) a child in respect of whom an application is made for an order under:

(a) section 31 (care or supervision order);

(b) section 43 (child assessment order);

(c) section 44 (emergency protection order); or

(d) section 45 (extension or discharge of emergency protection order);

(ii) a parent of such a child, or a person with parental responsibility for such a child within the meaning of the Children Act 1989; or

(iii) a child who is brought before a court under section 25(1) (use of accommodation for restricting liberty) who is not, but wishes to be, legally represented before the court;

(d) Legal Representation in proceedings related to any proceedings in sub-paragraph (c) which are being heard together with those proceedings or in which an order is being sought as an alternative to an order in those proceedings;

(e) Legal Representation in proceedings before a Mental Health Review Tribunal under the Mental Health Act 1983(2), where the client’s case or application to the Tribunal is, or is to be, the subject of the proceedings;

(f) Legal Representation by a solicitor in England and Wales of a person whose application under the Hague Convention or the European Convention has been submitted to the Central Authority in England and Wales under section 3(2) or 14(2) of the Child Abduction and Custody Act 1985(3); and

(g) Legal Representation of a person who:

(i) appeals to a magistrates' court against the registration of, or the refusal to register, a maintenance order made in a Hague Convention country under the Maintenance Orders (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1972(4); or

(ii) applies for the registration of a judgment under section 4 of the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982(5)

and who benefited from complete or partial assistance with, or exemption from, costs or expenses in the country in which the maintenance order was made or the judgment was given.

(2) In this regulation:

• “Central Authority” has the same meaning as in sections 3 and 14 of the Child Abduction and Custody Act 1985;

• “European Convention” means the convention defined in section 12(1) of the Child Abduction and Custody Act 1985;

• “Hague Convention” means the convention defined in section 1(1) of the Child Abduction and Custody Act 1985;

• “Hague Convention country” has the same meaning as in the Reciprocal Enforcement of Maintenance Orders (Hague Convention Countries) Order 1993(6); and

• “the Maintenance Orders (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1972” means that Act as applied with such exceptions, adaptations and modifications as are specified in the Reciprocal Enforcement of Maintenance Orders (Hague Convention Countries) Order 1993.

(1)

Section 25(6) is amended by the Access to Justice Act 1999, Schedule 4, paragraph 45.

(2)

1983 c. 20.

(3)

1985 c. 60.

(4)

1972 c. 18.

(5)

1982 c. 27.

(6)

S.I. 1993/593, as amended by S.I. 1994/1902 and 1999/1318.