Legal Aid Act 1964
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
Legal Aid Act 1964
1964 CHAPTER 30
An Act to provide for the payment out of the legal aid funds of costs incurred by successful opponents of legally aided litigants.
[15th April 1964]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Power to award costs out of legal aid fund.
(1) Where a party receives legal aid in connection with any proceedings between him and a party not receiving legal aid (in this Act referred to as ‘the unassisted party’) and those proceedings are finally decided in favour of the unassisted party, the court by which the proceedings are so decided may, subject to the provisions of this section, make an order for the payment to the unassisted party out of the legal aid fund of the whole or any part of the costs incurred by him in those proceedings.
(2) An order may be made under this section in respect of any costs if (and only if) the court is satisfied that it is just and equitable in all the circumstances that provision for those costs should be made out of public funds; and before making such an order the court shall in every case (whether or not application is made in that behalf) consider what orders should be made for costs against the party receiving legal aid and for determining his liability in respect of such costs.
(3) Without prejudice to subsection (2) above, no order shall be made under this section in respect of costs incurred in a court of first instance, whether by that court or by any appellate court, unless—
(a ) the proceedings in the court of first instance were instituted by the party receiving legal aid; and
(b ) the court is satisfied that the unassisted party will suffer severe financial hardship unless the order is made.
(4) An order under this section shall not be made by any court in respect of costs incurred by the unassisted party in any proceedings in which, apart from this Act, no order would be made for the payment of his costs.
(5) Without prejudice to any other provision restricting appeals from any court, no appeal shall lie against an order under this section, or a refusal to make such an order, except on a point of law.
(6) In this section ‘costs’ means costs as between party and party; but the costs in respect of which an order may be made under this section include the costs of applying for that order.
2 Supplementary provisions.
(1) Provision may be made by regulations under Part I of the Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949—
(a ) for determining the proceedings which are or are not to be treated as separate proceedings for the purposes of this Act, or as having been instituted by the party receiving legal aid for the purposes of section 1(3)(a ) of this Act;
(b ) for modifying section 1(3)(b ) of this Act in its application to an unassisted party who is concerned in proceedings only in a fiduciary, representative or official capacity; and
(c ) for regulating the procedure to be followed in connection with orders under this Act.
(2) Regulations made by virtue of subsection (1)(c ) of this section may in particular make provision—
(a ) for the reference of applications for orders under this Act, or of any questions of fact relevant to such applications, for inquiry and report by a master,...
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