Eligibility

You must satisfy two requirements before you can be granted a civil Public Funding Certificate (a certificate):

1. You must have reasonable grounds for taking or defending the action (case merit)
2. You must come within the financial limits (financial eligibility)

Case Merit

Case merit is decided at the Legal Services Area Office in Bristol on the basis of the information and documents supplied with the application.

Financial Eligibility

Financial eligibility is now also assessed by the LSC in Bristol on behalf of the Public Fund. The Statement of means is forwarded to that office for their consideration. An applicant on Income Support or Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance is automatically financially eligible.

Contribution

If you are assessed as being liable to pay a contribution to the Public Fund, an Offer of Public Funding will be made to you showing the amount of the required contribution. The calculation is based upon the amount by which your disposable income (calculated in accordance with the Public Funding regulations) exceeds a set figure. It is paid monthly for however long the Certificate remains in operation. If you fail to maintain your contribution, your Public Funding will be stopped. It must be paid promptly.

Limitations

When you have been assessed as eligible without contribution or have accepted an Offer of Public Funding, a Certificate will be issued. Limitations can be attached to the Certificate. For example, the Certificate may be limited to seeking further evidence and obtaining Counsel's opinion. In such a situation, application will have to be made to the Legal Services Commission Area Office, following compliance with the limitation, for the limitation either to be extended or removed, before the case can be pursued further.

Change of Address or Circumstances

In signing the Public Funding application you agreed to inform the Legal Services Commission Area Office if:

1. Your address changes, or
2. Your disposable income increases by more than £750 per annum or decreases by more than £300 per annum, or
3. Your capital increases by more than £750.

You can comply with this obligation by supplying the necessary information either directly to the Legal Services Commission Area Office or to our office.

Discharge

Usually the Certificate will be discharged when your case has been completed. However, the Certificate can be discharged in other circumstances. You may cease to be financially eligible through increase of income, for example, or developments in your case may mean that it no longer merits continued Public Funding. Additional circumstances leading potentially to discharge of the Certificate (which you need to know about and bear in mind) are if you:

1. Make an untrue statement as to your financial resources or fail to disclose any material fact concerning them;

2. Do not pay your contributions within 21 days of the due date;

3. Require the proceedings to be conducted unreasonably so as to incur an unjustifiable expense to the Public Fund;

4. Intentionally fail to furnish any material information concerning any matter other than your financial resources;

5. Knowingly make an untrue statement in furnishing such material information;

6. Fail to attend an interview or to provide information or documents when required to do so.

The effect of discharge is that no further legal work can be done for you on Public Funding. However, subject to any application of the Statutory Charge (see later), your solicitor's cost up to the date of discharge will be paid out of the Public Fund.

Revocation

A certificate can be revoked instead of discharged in the following circumstances if you:

1. Require the proceedings to be conducted unreasonably so as to incur an unjustifiable expense to the Public Fund;

2. Intentionally fail to furnish any material information concerning any matter other than your financial resources;

3. Knowingly make an untrue statement in furnishing such material information;

4. Fail to attend an interview or to provide information or documents when required to do so.

If you cannot show that you used due care or diligence to avoid any misstatement or failure. Revocation is at the discretion of the Area Director. The result of revocation is that you are treated as never having had Public Funding. This is very serious. We will still be able to claim our costs from the Public Fund. However, you will then be liable to repay these costs to the fund personally.

Essential Action

The lesson to draw from this is to ensure that you co-operate fully with the Legal Services Commission in supplying true information and documentation when requested. If you receive forms or papers from the Legal Services Commission, do not ignore them. Either complete and return them promptly, or if there are any difficulties or queries, contact ourselves without delay.

Statutory Charge

This is the clawback provision in the Public Funding legislation. The Statutory Charge applies to any money or property which you recover or preserve with the help of Public Funding (unless exempt). If you recover or preserve money, then we are required to use the whole or part of the money instead of the Public Fund to pay your legal costs.

If you recover or preserve property, then the Legal Services Commission will impose a charge on that property to cover the amount of your legal costs. The charge will attract interest. You will only have to pay off the charge and interest when you will. You can pay sooner by installations or lump sum if you so choose. We will advise you as to whether any money or property likely to be recovered or preserved by you will fall wholly or partly within one of the exceptions to the statutory charge. Do please bear in mind the statutory charge. It may be an important consideration when deciding how your case should be conducted.

Orders for Costs

It is never possible to predict precisely the outcome of a case in relation to costs. This is because the award of costs is in the discretion of the court. Having said this, the general rule is that the winner is entitled to an order for his or her costs.

If you win your case, therefore, it is probable that you will get an order for payment of your costs by your opponent. All being well, this will mean that no claim will need to be made against the Public Fund in respect of your costs and the Statutory Charge will accordingly not apply to any property or money preserved. However, this statement is subject to four qualifications:

1. If your opponent is also publicly funded, an order for costs may not be made against him or her;

2. Any order made may not cover the full amount of the costs which you have incurred;

3. The opponent may not be in a financial position to pay the costs ordered;

4. The opponent may only be able to pay the costs by installments over a lengthy period of time.

These qualifications mean that some costs will need to be met by the Public Fund (at least for a period of time in the case of no. 4) and may have to be clawed back from you by virtue of the statutory charge out of the money or property.

If you lose your case, your own costs will be met by the Public Fund. However, you could be ordered to pay some or all of the opponents costs. On many occasions, no order for costs is made against a publicly funded party who loses, but this is not a rule. An order for costs can be made against a publicly funded party like anyone else. The only difference is that your ability to pay the costs has to be considered. This may mean that you are only ordered to pay part of the opponent's total costs. We will need to consider with you your position in relation to costs and advise specifically as the matter progresses.