Legal Services Agency

Will I have to pay anything?
How do I make repayments?
“Charges” on your property as security for the debt
Is my legal aid paid to me or to the lawyer directly?
Do I have to pay anything to the lawyer?

Will I have to pay anything?

You may have to repay some of your legal aid, depending on how much you earn and what property you own.

The Legal Services Agency uses the financial information you give on your application form to work out whether you have to pay anything. The Agency will tell you the maximum amount you may have to repay when it tells you if you have been granted legal aid. Exactly how much you will eventually have to repay will depend on your income and property and on how much your case costs.

If you’re a beneficiary with no assets, it’s unlikely you’ll have to repay any of your legal aid.

How do I make repayments?

The Legal Services Agency can require you to make repayments in different ways. You might have to pay in more than one way.
The different ways to pay are –

• through regular payments (instalments) made weekly, fortnightly or monthly
• as a lump sum, either out of your savings or when you sell your house or other property.

If the Agency decides you can afford to make regular payments, you will probably have to start them straightaway. The Agency will work out a repayment plan with you based on the information you have provided in your application.

If you do not keep up with the repayment plan, the Agency can charge interest on what you owe. It can also take action to recover your debt, using debt collectors for example.

If you have problems meeting your repayments, contact the Agency’s Debt Management Group on 0800 600 090, as soon as possible. They can decide to rearrange your repayment plan, rather than taking action to collect the debt.

In some cases, the Agency can write-off (cancel) some or all of your legal aid debt if you can’t repay it.

You can ask for your legal aid to be stopped, but you may still have to repay some or all of the aid spent so far.

“Charges” on your property as security for the debt

If you own a house, car or other valuable property, you may have to authorise the Legal Services Agency to place a "charge" on the property as security for the debt. The Agency will require this if your legal aid debt is more than $300.
The charge means that if you sell the property, you must repay your debt to the Agency out of the money you get from the sale. However, you can repay the debt to the Agency at any time before then.

Is my legal aid paid to me or to the lawyer directly?

It’s paid to your lawyer directly.

Do I have to pay anything to the lawyer?

No. Your lawyer is not allowed to take payments directly from you. If your lawyer tries to charge you more, you should tell the Legal Services Agency.