Urgent Applications

Urgent bail applications

If your client is in custody and you need aid urgently for a bail application, use the Urgent Bail Request Form (see Forms). Fill in the form and fax it to us (it has our fax number on it). We will fax you back, stating whether aid is granted and how much. As always, however, you will later need to send in the usual application and supporting documents, and the fax grant is always subject to these being satisfactory, as set out below.

Other urgent cases

In other urgent cases, you should telephone the grants section and discuss the matter with an grants officer. That person may, if satisfied as to merit and urgency, conditionally approve aid for the step immediately necessary.

Telephone grants of aid will only be made in cases of genuine urgency. We will do everything we can in such cases. We do not want your client's interests to be harmed by delay, any more than you do. However, we will not approve aid by telephone in routine cases, but will ask you to apply formally.

Conditions of grants of aid made following urgent applications

If approval for legal aid is given following an urgent application, whether by fax or telephone, it is always subject to the following conditions:

• receipt of a properly completed application and proof of means in due course
• your client proving to be financially eligible for aid. This means that if your client turns out to be financially ineligible, you will not get aid and you will have to bill your client privately. It is wise to make this clear to the client at the outset, and
• all the ordinary conditions of aid, notwithstanding that your client has not as yet been informed of them formally by the Commission. It is therefore your duty to draw to your client's attention such conditions as may be relevant to them at that time.