Provision of legal services - the Statutory Charge and unrecovered costs

The Statutory Charge

Court orders

Unrecovered costs

Unaided party disadvantaged

Where a person has Legal Aid, wins a case, and receives money, they may have to repay legal aid.

This is known as the Statutory Charge. This could include a solicitor’s costs, barrister’s fees and any experts who wrote reports to help a case.

If the winner gets an order from the court that the loser has to pay costs then the winner may not have to repay his own costs.

However, there may still be a small percentage of "Unrecovered costs" that a person could owe to a solicitor.

Usually a losing party on Legal Aid will not have to pay the winner’s costs because the court will only make an order that a loser should pay if they can show a person has the money to pay (which they won’t have if they have received legal aid).

Costs against the CLS

A successful unassisted party can sometimes claim a balance of costs against the Community Legal Advice. The court must think it just and equitable, and the proceedings were instituted by the funded client. There must be "severe financial hardship" if it were not met.

The unassisted party may win outright and still find himself having to meet his own costs: a person who initiates proceedings will never be awarded costs against the CLS no matter how unmeritorious the defence.

Extra costs

Family mediation, maintenance

Under the "legal help" scheme in a family case, the solicitor's costs may be taken from the award. The person will receive what is left.

In some cases, however, solicitor's costs will not be taken from the award, for example, in family mediation cases or if the money is for maintenance.