The Legal Aid (Mediation in Family Matters) (Amendment) Regulations 1998

Statutory Instruments

1998 No. 900

LEGAL AID AND ADVICE, ENGLAND AND WALES

The Legal Aid (Mediation in Family Matters) (Amendment) Regulations 1998

Made

26th March 1998

Laid before Parliament

27th March 1998

Coming into force

20th April 1998

The Lord Chancellor, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by sections 13B(2), 34 and 43 of the Legal Aid Act 1988(1) and with the consent of the Treasury, hereby makes the following Regulations—

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Legal Aid (Mediation in Family Matters) (Amendment) Regulations 1998 and shall come into force on 20th April 1998.

(2) In these Regulations, a regulation referred to by number alone means the regulation so numbered in the Legal Aid (Mediation in Family Matters) Regulations 1997(2).

Amendment to the Legal Aid (Mediation in Family Matters) Regulations 1997

2.  In regulation 3, for “£166”, there shall be substituted “£172”.

3.  At the end of regulation 4, there shall be added the following new paragraph—

“(7) Where the mediator is satisfied that any of the persons whose disposable income or disposable capital is to be assessed under paragraph (1) is an assisted person within the meaning of the Civil Legal Aid (General) Regulations 1989(3), he shall take that person’s disposable income and disposable capital as not exceeding the amounts specified in regulation 3.”.

Irvine of Lairg, C.

Dated 23rd March 1998

We consent,

Jim Dowd

Bob Ainsworth

Two of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury

Dated 26th March 1998

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Legal Aid (Mediation in Family Matters) Regulations 1997 so as to—

(a) change the weekly disposal income limit for eligibility for mediation from £166 to £172 (regulation 2); and

(b) provide that a person who is in receipt of civil legal aid will be eligible for mediation (regulation 3).

(1)

1988 c. 34; sections 34 and 43 were amended by the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 (c. 41), Schedule 18, paragraphs 60 and 63 and by the Family Law Act 1996 (c. 27), Schedule 8, paragraph 44. Section 13B(2) was inserted by the Family Law Act 1996, section 27. Section 43 is an interpretation provision and is cited because of the meaning assigned to the word “regulations”.

(2)

S.I. 1997/1078.

(3)

S.I. 1989/339.