The Civil Legal Aid (Assessment of Resources) (Amendment) Regulations 1999

Statutory Instruments

1999 No. 813

LEGAL AID AND ADVICE, ENGLAND AND WALES

The Civil Legal Aid (Assessment of Resources) (Amendment) Regulations 1999

Made

12th March 1999

Laid before Parliament

16th March 1999

Coming into force

12th April 1999

The Lord Chancellor, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by sections 15(1), 16, 34 and 43 of the Legal Aid Act 1988(1), makes the following Regulations:

Citation, commencement and transitional provisions

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Civil Legal Aid (Assessment of Resources) (Amendment) Regulations 1999 and shall come into force on 12th April 1999.

(2) These Regulations shall apply to applications for legal aid made on or after 12th April 1999 and applications made before that date shall be treated as if these Regulations had not come into force.

Amendments to the Civil Legal Aid (Assessment of Resources) Regulations 1989

2.  Regulation 4 of the Civil Legal Aid (Assessment of Resources) Regulations 1989(2) shall be amended by substituting in:

(a) paragraph (2) for “£7,777”, “£7,940”;

(b) paragraph (3) for “£8,571”, “£8,751”;

(c) paragraph (4) for “£2,625”, “£2,680”.

Signed by authority of the Lord Chancellor

G.W. Hoon

Minister of State,

Lord Chancellor’s Department

Dated 7th March 1999

We consent

Jane Kennedy

Jim Dowd

Two of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury

Dated 12th March 1999

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Civil Legal Aid (Assessment of Resources) Regulations 1989 so as to increase the income limit for non-contributory civil legal aid from £2,625 to £2,680; and increase the upper income limit for eligibility from £8,571 to £8,751 for personal injury claims, and from £7,777 to £7,940 for other claims.

(1)

1988 c. 34; sections 15, 16, 34 and 43 were amended by the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 (c. 41), Schedule 17, paragraph 19 and Schedule 18, paragraphs 60, 61 and 63; and by the Family Law Act 1996 (c. 27), sections 26 and 29 and Schedule 8, paragraph 44. Section 43 is an interpretation provision and is cited because of the meaning given to “regulations”.

(2)

S.I. 1989/338; the relevant amending instruments are S.I. 1990/484, 1992/718, 1993/788, 1994/806, 1995/797, 1996/642, 1997/753 and 1998/664.