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GAZETTE
APRIL 1989
party to proceedings . . . ", that it
must be . . . "reasonable having
regard to all the circumstances of
the case . . ." to provide legal
services and so on.
The relevance of the "merits"
test will be apparent to practit-
ioners; there is very little point in
referring an indigent client to the
Legal Aid service where the
practitioner concerned already
considers that, from a legal point of
view, the client's case is totally
lacking in merit, and that legal
services (no matter who provides
them) are unlikely to provide him
with any worthwhile benefit. If the
practitioner considers, however,
that the matter is "borderline", or
perhaps that a process of negoti-
ation might produce some
worthwhile benefit, it would be a
different matter.
(B) Means Test - An applicant is
eligible on financial grounds if his
"disposable income" and diapos-
able capital" are within certain
limits specified in the Scheme. (As
mentioned earlier, the treatment of
capital
resources is dealt with
separately in this article - in the
vast majority of cases applicants
do not have significant capital
resources which means that, by
and large, eligibility is determined
by reference to
income
alone).
"Disposable income" is the
income which remains when
various deductions are made from
gross income - "gross income"
being defined as total income
received from all sources. The
deductions to be made from gross
income
-
referred to as
"allowances" - include, for
example, income tax, mortgage
repayments, rent, social insurance,
V.H.I, contributions, expenses in
travelling to and from work
together with various allowances in
respect of the applicant's spouse
and dependent children.
A person will qualify for services
under the Scheme if his annual
disposable
income does not exceed
£5,500 per annum. Obviously, with
the various allowances that can be
made, an individual with the usual
family commitments could qualify
for legal services on a gross annual
income considerably in excess of
£5,500. The Board's Annual Report
for 1985 contained various
examples, one of which showed
that a married man with three
children and fairly typical commit-
ments would still qualify for legal
aid on a gross income of almost
£14,000 per annum.
There would be no advantage in
going into further details, here, on
the subject of disposable income.
Guidance will be provided in
individual cases at any of the
Board's Law Centres - phone
numbers and addresses are given
below.
There is, however, one further
point worth mentioning on means
assessement and that is that while
the income of husband and wife
are normally aggregated, they are
treated separately when the parties
are in conflict with each other or
where they are living separately
and apart. The effect of this rule is
that in a very high proportion of
matrimonial cases a wife will
qualify for legal services even if her
husband is financially secure.
(C) Capital Rasources - As
mentioned above, an applicant's
capital
resources are treated
separately from his
income.
"Capital" includes, for example,
money in a bank or post office
account, house property or land.
The assessment of the value of
such resources can be a rather
complex matter. The aim is to find
the value of the applicant's
disposable
capital which is its gross
value less, for example, the cost of
realising assets, outstanding loans,
etc.
Again, there would be no real
advantage in discussing the details
of capital assessments here; the
Board's staff will be able to help in
individual cases.
As in the case of income
assessments, however, certain
features are worthy of special
note:-
(i) the value of the applicant's
family home is excluded,
except where its unencum-
bered
value
exceeds
£45,000,
and
(i i) farm land is treated much
more favourably than other
types of capital for assess-
ment purposes.
(D) Contributions - All appli-
cants for legal services are liable to
pay certain contributions. The
minimum contribution is £1 for
legal advice plus a further £14
where the applicant needs to take
or defend court proceedings;
minimum contributions are payable
by people whose disposable
income does not exceed £3,500
per annum.
Where the applicant's disposable
income is between £3,500 and
£5,500 per annum (the latter being
the upper eligibility limit), higher
contributions become payable both
for legal advice and for legal
representation. The maximum
income-related contribution (i.e.
leaving aside the question of capital
resources) for legal advice is £50
and for legal representation in
Court £515. An analysis of
contributions for legal representa-
tion, which is contained in the
Board's Annual Report, 1986
shows that less than 6% of all
applicants were liable for a
contribution in excess of £15 and
only ten applicants (under 1% of
the total) were liable for a
contribution in excess of £100. No
applicant, is of course, required to
pay a contribution in excess of the
cost to the Board of providing him
with legal services.
An important feature of the
contributions system is that,
generally speaking, the individual
applicant knows, from the outset,
what the maximum cost of legal
services will be, even if he loses the
action. In some cases (in practice,
a very small minority of cases) the
contributions originally determined
may be increased - for example,
where the applicant's financial
circumstances improve while he is
in receipt of legal services, or (more
commonly) where his financial
circumstances change for the
better as a result of obtaining such
services.
Additional contributions may be
payable also in the case of a person
with assessible capital resources.
This does not arise in the vast
majority of cases; if there are
queries in individual cases, the
Board's staff will be in a position to
assist.
There are three final points
concerning contributions which are
worthy of special mention;
(i) All persons depending solely
on Social Welfare payments
qualify for legal services on
payment of the standard
"minimum" contributions
referred to earlier i.e. £1 for
advice plus a further £14 for
representation in court.
(i i) A person who is liable to pay
the minimum contributions
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