The Civil Legal Aid (General) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 1994
These Regulations amend the Civil Legal Aid (General) Regulations 1989.Regulation 3 is a transitional provision relating to the amendments to the statutory charge provisions.Regulations 5, 6, 7 and 24 take account of the Legal Aid Board’s franchising scheme. The amendments reflect the Legal Aid Board’s power under Part II of the Legal Aid Act 1988 to enter into contracts for the provision of representation in cases for which civil legal aid is available. Regulation 152, as amended, specifies the classes of case for which contracts may be entered into.Regulation 8 specifies that there is no appeal from the refusal of an emergency certificate.Regulation 9 extends the power to make prohibitory directions preventing consideration of legal aid applications made by persons abusing the facilities of the Act to applications pending at the time when the direction is made, not just future applications.Regulations 10, 11 and 13 specify that notices served by solicitors informing other parties to proceedings of the issue, amendment, discharge or revocation of legal aid certificates shall be in a form approved by the Board.Regulation 12 clarifies the provisions relating to the grant of prior authority to incur costs to certain cases and the obligation on the Area Director to specify the maximum fees payable where such prior authority is granted.Regulations 14 and 17 to 21 amend the provisions relating to the statutory charge over money or property recovered on behalf of an assisted person as follows:power to defer enforcement of a charge over money is extended to cover cases of financial relief after a foreign divorce and compulsory sale by trustees for sale;power to defer enforcement of a charge over property is extended to cover all cases where the property is or is intended to be used as a home for the assisted person or his dependants;interest on a charge is to be calculated from the running total of the costs paid by the Legal Aid Board from time to time, instead of from the final total; and that total is to be limited to the value of the money or property recovered or preserved.Regulation 15 corrects an error of citation in the main regulations.Regulation 16 places on a regulatory footing the payment of interest on damages earned during the period in which the damages are in the Board’s hands.Regulation 22 makes a minor change concerning the Board’s handling of claims for payments on account. It also clarifies that the limit on the maximum payable on a payment on account claimed under regulation 100(1) or (2) does not apply to claims under regulation 100(6) relating to certain circumstances where a solicitor’s retainer has been determined.Regulation 23 extends the time limit for applying for authority to carry in objections or seek review of taxation or appeal from such a review, from one month to two months.