Legal aid is a UK government-funded program to help people from disadvantaged backgrounds get access to legal representation.

Organisations can only provide legal aid services if they have a contract with the Legal Aid Agency (LAA).

Legal aid can help you pay for legal advice, family mediation and representation at court.

The rules around eligibility for legal aid for family law cases are complicated.

There are usually three considerations for legal aid:

• Scope
• Means test
• Merit test

You can check if you are eligible for legal aid on the government website.

Scope:

Legal aid for family law can help with child disputes, divorce, and even financial disputes arising from divorce, if you have suffered or are at risk of domestic abuse by a partner, provided you have evidence of the abuse.

It can be used to help with family mediation costs to resolve disputes about finance or children on the breakdown of a relationship.

It is also available for cases involving:

• Court injunctions taken against an abusive partner or family member
• If you have suffered or are at risk of domestic abuse by a partner or family member
• High Court proceedings about child welfare
• Cases where social services are involved with your children
• If your child has, or is at risk of, being taken out of the country without your consent
• Forced marriage

Means test

Legal aid is only available if your financial resources were within the limits set by the Legal Aid Agency.

To qualify, you must be on a low income, and have little savings, or other assets, such as property or valuable items.

You’ll usually have to give details and evidence of your income, benefits, savings and property, and those of your partner, if you live with them.

If you are awarded money or property due to your case, you may be asked to pay back some, or all, of the costs funded by Legal Aid.

Merit test

The Legal Aid Agency will look at the strengths and weaknesses of your case and consider things such as:

• The chances of you succeeding in your case
• The reasonableness of the costs compared to the benefit you may gain from succeeding in your case
• Whether a reasonable person who could afford it would use their own money to pay for the case

Check eligibility for legal aid

You can check if you are eligible for legal aid on the government website.

To apply for legal aid, you will need to find a solicitor who does legal aid work.

You’ll find a searchable list of approved legal aid solicitors and law firms on the government’s legal aid website.