Legal Aid Scheme: Domestic Abuse
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will take steps to ensure that legal aid is available to people using the family courts who have been subject to (a) financial control and (b) domestic abuse.
Answered by Heidi Alexander
The Government is committed to supporting victims of domestic abuse.
In private family proceedings, legal aid is available for child arrangements, financial remedy proceedings and divorce for domestic abuse victims, including those subjected to economic abuse, and where the child is at risk of abuse, subject to providing the required evidence and meeting the means and merits tests.
Emergency representation is available for the purpose of obtaining urgent protection, such as non-molestation orders. We understand how important it is that anyone who needs a protective order can access legal advice and representation quickly, whatever their means. An eligibility waiver is available for victims of domestic abuse applying for an injunction or other protective order, which means they can receive legal aid even if they would not otherwise pass the means test, though they may then have to pay a financial contribution towards their legal costs.
In public family proceedings, means-free legal aid is available for parents and children in public family law children cases, including care proceedings and adoption proceedings under the Children Act 1989 and in related proceedings. Legal aid is also available to prospective kinship carers, subject to the means and merits test. Victims of domestic abuse do not need to provide evidence of abuse when accessing legal aid for public family matters.
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