Criteria for obtaining legal advice
When an application is received, the law centre carries out some preliminary checks and then financially assesses the application. If the matter is clearly out of scope, make an application for a legal aid certificate with a recommendation that it be refused. See Chapter 3 of the Administrative Procedures Handbook.
The merits criteria for civil legal advice can be found in section 24 of the Act. In principle, all applications for legal services must meet these criteria. A full outline of the grounds relied on when considering applications for legal services can be found Part 5 but here are some of the main principles.
