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Verification of Means - What you need to prove
Verification required
The Commission requires that applicants for legal aid verify their means (both income and assets) as disclosed in the legal aid application. If the Means Test guidelines are applied to the means of any financially associated person, their means must also be verified.
Verification of applicant's means
Verification of means | Documents or copies to be sighted |
| Income:
| a recent payslip
a letter from the applicant's employer |
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| a pension or benefit card form from the Department of Social Security indicating that the applicant has recently been approved for a benefit |
- self-employed applicants
| a copy of the most recent tax return
most recent balance sheets |
| Liquid assets | Recent statements showing three months operation on all accounts maintained by the applicant with financial institutions, as disclosed in the application form. |
| Investments | Documentation relating to any investments held by the applicant, as disclosed in the application form. |
| Non-liquid assets | Documents should be requested when the officer determining the application considers it appropriate. |
Result of non-verification of means
With certain exceptions and discretions, a grant of aid will not be made until the officer determining the grant of aid has verified the means of the applicant.
The Commission will refuse legal aid if the required documents verifying means are not produced within a reasonable period of time of being requested.
Exceptions
| Types of Matters | Verification not required |
| Emergency grants | Verification of applicant's means is not required prior to an emergency grant of legal aid being made. However, a formal application must be lodged with the Commission within 14 days of the emergency grant being made. Documents verifying the applicant's means must also be lodged within this time frame. |
| First contact duty solicitor matters | Verification of the applicant's means is not required on the occasion of a client's first contact (whether an office interview or a court appearance) with a duty solicitor. As first appearance bail applications are not means tested verification is not required. If, an additional contact with or appearance for the client is necessary, then the client is required to produce documents verifying their means.
Where the additional contact or appearance is being made with a different duty solicitor, the solicitor who first deals with the client must advise the client that they will be required to provide documents verifying means to that second solicitor. |
| Refusing applications | Verification of applicant's means is not required if it is apparent from the legal aid application that the application will be refused (whether on merit, means or guidelines). If this refusal subsequently becomes the subject of an appeal to the Legal Aid Review Committee, then verification may be required. |
Discretion
| Discretion to waive verification | Who may exercise discretion |
| There is a discretion in special circumstances to waive the requirement for verification of means. | This discretion can be exercised by legal officers Grade III-IV and above.
In duty solicitor matters, this discretion can be exercised by:
legal officers Grade I-III and above and by private practitioners authorised to grant aid under the Legal Aid Commission Act 1979. |
| There is a discretion to waive the requirement for verification of means in duty solicitor matters for parents in proceedings under the Children (Care and Protection) Act, where in all the circumstances, it is impractical to obtain verification. | This discretion can be exercised by Commission officers and private practitioners authorised to grant legal aid under the Legal Aid Commission Act 1979. |
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