Forum Home → Discussion → Other areas of social welfare law → Thread
Exceptional case funding for legal aid - free guide
Public Law Project has published a guide on how to apply for Exceptional Case Funding for legal aid.
Latest legal aid statistics:
- there were 745 applications for Exceptional Case Funding (ECF) received from July to September 2018. This is a 17% increase from the same quarter last year. 685 (92%) of these were new applications.
- of the 745 ECF applications received between July and September 2018, 94% (700) had been determined by the LAA as of 20 November 2018. 65% (45 8) of these were granted, 18% (123) were refused and 14% (97) rejected
- among the ECF applications received between July and September 2018, immigration (61%), inquest (16%), and family (12%) remained the most requested categories of law.
More: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-july-to-september-2018
Plus ... more stats over the period fom 2010 in this written answer: https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2018-12-07/200102
Some further stats (at least judging from what I could find within that stat dump without too much effort - and subject to my having misunderstood the data)
-95 applications for WB ECF made in total. 93 of those made by established providers & 2 directly from individuals (both unsuccessful).
-29 of those applications were reviews - so possibly only 66 unique applications (I don’t know if multiple reviews are possible)
-26 applications have been successful (including 9 on review) since the scheme began (so fewer successful applications than there are pages in the PLP PDF guide…)
We know that some (well at least one) of the successful ECF applications have been to fund advocacy for UT hearings (SSWP v PD (ESA) [2014] UKUT 549 (AAC); [2015] AACR 24)
And Tom Royston (who of course acted in that case) has discovered that about 5 successful applications funded FtT appeals (https://twitter.com/tdroyston/status/1070681678467817472)
[ Edited: 14 Dec 2018 at 05:07 pm by Elliot Kent ]