An important element of Legal Aid is that if you have won your case, you may
have to pay the cost back to the State. Most people understand that, but the
rules (as one might expect!) are not so simple.
For compensation cases, it's fairly easy to understand. In most cases your
solicitor will negotiate a settlement that requires the other party's insurer to
pay the legal costs on top. For all sorts of reasons, it may be that the insurer
doesn't have to pay all the costs (such as a specialist report that wasn't
helpful) and you will have to meet that out of what was paid. If the other party
wasn't insured, then you will have to meet all your costs out of what was
recovered, and take action to recover them from the opponent.
It is in family cases that the Charge particularly bites. If there was a
dispute over the house, even whether it should be sold now or later; if a lump
sum order is made or division of house sale proceeds; or if other assets, such
as life policies are either transferred or preserved - then the Charge applies.
In family cases only, the Commission has the power not to require the costs
to be paid back immediately, if satisfied that it would cause hardship and that
the property was the client's home or money recovered would be used to provide a
new home. The Charge will then be registered against the home or new home until
it is sold in the future. It will carry interest at 1 per cent over base rate,
so most people aim to repay it by instalments.