Legal Aid, "no win no fee" and General Funding 

There are important matters which currently are affecting our ability to offer "Legal Help".  Please see below.  

The ethos of Wilkins is to try to serve all members of the community whatever their financial needs.  If your case has merits and qualifies for legal aid we can offer you advice through Public Funding specifically in Family and Criminal matters.  We can also sometimes assist with legal aid where you are being sued or in relation to other civil matters.  We can advise you about this when we see you. 

In some more limited cases (for example actions against the police where you allege you have been assaulted by them) we can offer you legal aid in Personal Injury matters although there are also other methods of funding available (specifically "no win no fee" and through legal expenses insurance which you may not even know you have). So you should never be concerned about the cost of seeing your solicitor when seeking advice about a Personal Injury case.

In other cases where you may not qualify for legal aid we will either give you a fixed estimate (for example in relation to wills or residential conveyancing) or will provide you with a budget for your legal costs not to be exceeded without your agreement.   

Please speak to the fee earner involved when you come to your first meeting.  We will ensure that we discuss all your options with you. 

The Current position about Legal Help at Wilkins as at December 2009.  

The Legal Services Commission gives various firms what are known as "matter starts" which basically give us permission to provide a preliminary  level of public funding to our clients through a scheme known as "Legal Help".   This does not pay us a great deal for assisting you but does help us to cover some of our cost.  

The LSC has informed us that we have used up our allocation of Matter Starts for this year so are no longer able to provide this minimum initial cover.   We are of the view that you may find it difficult to find a solicitor in the Aylesbury Area who will be able to provide you with Legal Help between now and the end of the financial year.   We want to hear from you if you are struggling to find legal assistance through this scheme as we are concerned about the consequences of this decision for people going through difficult times and who need legal advice but do not have the means to pay their legal bills.  

The LSC has advised us that you can  contact their help line on  0845 345 4 345  for preliminary legal advice but it is our view that they cannot offer the level of service which you may require.     

This does not affect our ability to offer you full public funding in family and other civil matters (so you should still contact us about your case).  It also does not affect criminal legal aid which is dealt with under a different scheme.  

What it does mean is that we cannot offer you the preliminary advice that would then allow you to in some circumstances move onto the full public funding.  Sometimes where the case has merits (especially in domestic violence cases or where you children may be at risk) we can offer you this on the same day your instruct us  which means that we can still represent you throughout with the benefit of a legal aid certificate.  

In other cases (for example family matters) we can also offer you preliminary legal advice through our fixed fee scheme (see  our special offer about this). 

If you wish to complain or to raise this matter further we can only suggest that you contact your local Member of Parliament or the LSC direct. 

tel 01296 424681