https://www.slab.org.uk/guidance/who-can-receive-advice-and-assistance/
https://www.slab.org.uk/guidance/who-can-receive-advice-and-assistance/
Advice and assistance may be given only to “a person” [section 6 of the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986]. A person is an individual, including those under the age of 16. Advice and assistance cannot be given to a company or a partnership.
A child over the age of 12 is deemed to be capable of instructing you. With a younger child, you must form a view as to whether they are capable of understanding what is happening and of giving instructions.
Your client who for good reason cannot make the application in person can authorise some other person to apply on their behalf.
Advice and assistance may not be given to a corporate or unincorporate body, except where the body is acting in a representative, fiduciary or official capacity.
Advice and assistance cannot be given to any of these bodies, or anything that seems to be of a similar type, in their own right. Advice and assistance to people such as company directors can only be in respect of their personal, individual interest – not their corporate interest.
You cannot grant an application for advice and assistance where your client has other rights or facilities or a reasonable expectation of getting financial help from another body. Therefore, you must ask your client if they have:
We can allow you to proceed to provide advice and assistance where your client has other rights if we consider there is a special reason for doing so. For example, your client may suggest a conflict of interest or previous unsatisfactory dealings with the solicitor as to why they do not wish a solicitor nominated by the other body to help them.
You can ask us in writing to reconsider any application for advice and assistance we have refused.