Other rights and facilities

In terms of Regulation 15 of the Children’s Legal Assistance (Scotland) Regulations 2013 we must be satisfied that your client does not have any other rights and facilities potentially available, making legal aid unnecessary.

General rules:

  • If we are not satisfied on these matters, we must refuse legal aid unless there is special reason for making it available
  • If your client has a reasonable expectation of receiving financial help towards case costs from a body that they are a member of, they must give a written undertaking to pay us any sum received from such a body
  • If your client is unable to redeem such rights or facilities, then we still may grant legal aid

Other rights or facilities could include, for example, assistance from Local Authorities or the Police Federation.

You must ensure that you ask your client about all potential sources of funding before applying for legal aid.  If we find that such sources of funding exist and we were not told about them, we will consider terminating a grant of children’s legal aid.

Statutory criteria for legal aid for sheriff court appeal proceedings under the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 where a client is a section 126 individual
Supporting information you should send with application for children’s legal aid for sheriff court proceedings under the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011

In this section

Sheriff Court Applications for children’s legal aid

General – applications to us

Find out who you must apply to when seeking children’s legal aid for children’s court proceedings, and which court proceedings are covered under the 2011 Act.

Sheriff Court Applications for children’s legal aid

2011 Act cases concerning multiple children: multiple applications by Relevant Persons or other adult individuals not required

Find out how many legal aid applications you should submit in a case concerning multiple children, in context of conjoined court hearings under the 2011 Act.

Sheriff Court Applications for children’s legal aid

Application directly by a child for children’s legal aid for 2011 Act children’s court proceedings

Find out how to determine if a child can apply for legal aid on their own behalf: assessing ‘general understanding of what it means to instruct a solicitor’.

Sheriff Court Applications for children’s legal aid

2011 Act Applications for children’s legal aid on behalf of a child

Read about who can apply for children’s legal aid on behalf of a child and relevant legislation under the 2011 Act.

Sheriff Court Applications for children’s legal aid

2011 Act applications for children’s legal aid by a Safeguarder

Find out about the rules on Safeguarders applying for children’s legal aid and the consequences of Safeguarders instructing another solicitor to act.

Sheriff Court Applications for children’s legal aid

Applications for children’s legal aid by a curator ad litem

Find out if a curator can also act as solicitor for the client, if their work is covered by children’s legal aid and if a curator instruct a separate solicitor.

Sheriff Court Applications for children’s legal aid

Statutory criteria for legal aid for sheriff court proceedings under the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 where your client is a child

This page provides information on the statutory criteria we apply when assessing applications for children’s legal aid by children in sheriff court proceedings under the 2011 Act.

Sheriff Court Applications for children’s legal aid

Statutory criteria for legal aid for sheriff court proceedings under the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 where your client is a relevant person or deemed relevant person

Statutory criteria for assessing children’s legal aid (relevant or deemed relevant person as applicant) under 2011 Act: financial eligibility, reasonableness.

Sheriff Court Applications for children’s legal aid

Statutory criteria for legal aid for sheriff court appeal proceedings relating to deemed or undeemed relevant person status

Find out about the statutory application criteria for sheriff court appeal proceedings relating to deemed or undeemed relevant person status.

Sheriff Court Applications for children’s legal aid

Statutory criteria for legal aid for sheriff court appeal proceedings under the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 where a client is a section 126 individual

Statutory assessment criteria for sheriff court appeal proceedings under 2011 Act where your client is a section 126 individual, incl. effective participation.

Sheriff Court Applications for children’s legal aid

Supporting information you should send with application for children’s legal aid for sheriff court proceedings under the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011

Information and supporting documentation you need to send with a sheriff court legal aid application for various court hearing types under the 2011 Act.

Sheriff Court Applications for children’s legal aid

Conditions on grants of legal aid

Find out about the conditions that we may attach to grants of children’s legal aid.

Sheriff Court Applications for children’s legal aid

Review of refusal of legal aid or conditions on the grant of legal aid

Find out about how to apply for a review of our decision where legal aid is refused or granted with conditions.