Civil news: increases to emergency cost limit for legal aid work

We are making increases to the cost limit on emergency civil legal aid certificates from 13 September 2021.

What sort of work is affected?

• full representation

• family help, higher

What is the increase?

Emergency civil legal aid certificates will be issued with a revised cost limit of £2,250.

We have deliberately set a figure which does not exceed substantive cost limits across different categories of law.

Certificates for investigative representations will continue to include a costs limit of £1,350.

How do emergency certificates work?

Delegated functions to grant emergency certificates are used when there is no time to apply to the LAA and wait for a funding decision.

Why is this happening now?

The new cost limit was suggested by providers in our process efficiency team (PET). This a small partnership group, which also includes LAA subject matter experts and representative bodies.

The increased limit should better reflect the work completed in emergency cases. It should also reduce the administrative burden on providers.

We are introducing this change manually while a permanent digital solution is worked on.

What if I need more than £2,250?

A higher cost limit can be agreed in exceptional circumstances.

You would need to include details of the cost limit requested alongside written justification within the ‘statement of case’ or ‘merits report’.

Authority for a cost limit to be reduced is provided for in CLA regulations. But this will only be done if the justification provided is not appropriate.

Challenges to cost limits

You can email our ‘civil application fixer service’ if you believe:

Further information

Regulation 39(2) CLA (Procedure) Regulations 2012 – to view authority for cost limits

applicationfixer@justice.gov.uk – to challenge cost limits