Core legal fund
Core legal fund
What is the core legal fund?
The “core legal fund” is a fund which is administered by the Director General of the Attorney General’s Department, and is funded from annual budgetary allocations to the Attorney General’s Department.
The Fund is available to meet certain costs associated with the provision of legal representation and advice classified as 'core legal work'. However, not all categories of core legal work are funded by the core legal fund. At all times it is necessary to bear in mind that there is a distinction between the classification of work as “core legal work” on the one hand, and the availability of the core legal fund to meet the costs of that legal work, on the other hand.
Non-budget sector agencies legal fund
The core legal fund is only available to budget sector agencies. Non-budget sector agencies do not have access to the core legal fund, but are nevertheless still bound by Premier’s Memorandum 95-39 regarding referral of core legal work to the Crown Solicitor.
What is covered by the core legal fund?
In legal matters funded from the core legal fund, the following coverage applies:
- An agency’s own legal costs are met by the core legal fund.
- Legal costs payable by the agency to another party are payable from the core legal fund.
- All damages verdicts payable by an agency are funded by that agency, and not by the core legal fund.
- Where a matter is settled in favour of an opposing party on an inclusive of costs basis, the agency is responsible for funding the payment in full.
- Where a matter is settled in favour of a State agency on an inclusive of costs basis, the agency is accountable from any settlement sum recovered by the agency, to the core legal fund, for the agency’s costs met from that fund in the matter.
- Where an agency obtains a verdict and an order for costs in its favour, the verdict sum is payable to the agency. The agency is accountable to the core legal fund from any costs recovered by the agency pursuant to the costs order, for the agency’s costs met from the core legal fund in the matter.
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