Changes to funding for Judicial Review cases
Following the successful challenge to the implementation of conditional funding in judicial review cases by the Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) (Amendment) (No 3) Regulations 2014 in R (Ben Hoare Bell and Others) v Lord Chancellor [2015] EWHC 523 (Admin) the High Court ordered that the amendment regulations be quashed.
Following this decision, the Lord Chancellor announced that the Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 would come into force on 27 March 2015. These regulations re-impose conditional funding as set out in the 2014 amendment regulations with the exception that payment is now permitted in two additional situations.
The new regulations provide that in judicial review cases where the application for funding is made on or after 27 March 2015, payment for work done prior to permission being granted is conditional on one of the following:
- The Court giving permission for judicial review proceedings to be brought
- The Court neither refusing nor giving permission to bring judicial review proceedings and the Lord Chancellor considers that it is reasonable to pay remuneration in the circumstances of the case, taking into account:-
- The reason why a costs order or agreement was not obtained in favour of the client
- The extent to which, and the reason why, the client obtained the outcome sought in the proceedings
- The strength of the application for permission at the time it was filed, based on the law and facts which the solicitor knew of ought to have known at that time
- The Defendant withdraws the decision to which the application for judicial review relates resulting in the Court:-
- Refusing permission to bring judicial review proceedings
- Neither refusing nor granting permission
- The Court orders an oral hearing to consider:-
- Whether to give permission to bring judicial review proceedings
- Whether to give permission to bring an appeal against a refusal of permission
- An appeal against a refusal of permission
- The Court orders a rolled-up hearing
The new regulations do not apply to cases where an application for funding was signed before 27 March 2015 and received by the LAA by 31 March 2015 or submitted in CCMS by 27 March 2015. The new rules also do not apply to grants of emergency representation made before 27 March 2015 and received by the LAA, or uploaded through CCMS, within 5 days. Existing certificates to which new judicial review proceedings are added on or after 27 March will however be subject to the new rules.
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