3.This Act replaces the legal aid system with two new schemes; and makes provision about private methods of funding litigation; the provision of legal services; the handling of complaints about lawyers; appeals, courts, judges and court proceedings; magistrates and magistrates’ courts; and immunity from legal action and costs and indemnities for certain officers exercising judicial functions.
4.The provisions in the Act form part of the wide-ranging programme of reforms to legal services and the courts described in the Government’s White Paper, Modernising Justice, published on 2 December 1998.
5.Except where noted, the Act only affects England and Wales.
6.These Notes are in five main parts, reflecting the main topics in the Act.
Overview