LEGAL AID

Costs legal aid in respect of care proceedings Legal Aid Board entitled to grant certificate subject to financial limitation on costsR v Legal Aid...Costs legal aid in respect of care proceedings Legal Aid Board entitled to grant certificate subject to financial limitation on costsR v Legal Aid Board, Ex p Burrows: CA (Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers MR, Kennedy and Dyson LJJ): 12 February 2001A solicitor applied to the Legal Aid Board for a legal aid certificate for a mother defending care proceedings brought by a local authority under section 31 of the Children Act 1989.

A legal aid certificate was granted under section 15(4) of the Legal Aid Act 1988 with a costs limitation of 5,000.

The costs exceeded 5,000.

The solicitor made no application for an amendment to the certificate but, when the board refused to pay more than 5,000, applied for judicial review on the grounds that the costs limitation was ultra vires the boards powers and that, even if a general power existed, it could not apply to public law cases under section 15(3C) of the 1988 Act.

Stanley Burnton J refused the application, holding that the Board was empowered by section 15(4) to impose costs limitations on certificates.

The solicitor appealed.Robin Spon-Smith (instructed by David Burrows, Bristol) for the solicitor.

Jonathan Harvie QC and Julia Ellins (instructed by the Policy and Legal Director, Legal Services Commission) for the Legal Aid Board.

Held, dismissing the appeal, that limitation in section 15(4) bore its ordinary and natural meaning, and accordingly section 15(4) empowered the Board to impose costs limitations; and there was nothing unjust in imposing a costs limitation in advance, even on certificates in public law cases under the Children Act 1989, since an amendment could be sought to raise the limit and refusal of such an amendment was subject to an appeals process.