BR and Legal Proceedings

lala9

Morning All

Just a quick question, what happens if you are bankrupt but you find yourself having to fight a costly legal battle. This relates to custody. If you have an IPA set up would you then have to revisit the SOA to accommodate the costs, would it be allowed etc etc???

lala9

Do bankrupts receive legal aid???

debt_doctor

Hi, an IPA once set up can be varied with agreement of both parties. If the costs of your reasonable domestic needs were affected by the action you mentioned then yes, potentially, that would be reason to apply for a variation.

Bankrupts are not excluded from the civil legal aid process, but you would have to meet all the usual criteria. Not all fields are covered by legal aid, and very soon virtually none of them will be.

DD

debtinfo

yes one of the better things about bankruptcy is that it is not tied into any artificial set of expenses and that the main rule governing it is that if the expenditure is considered reasonable it will be allowed. Now whilst it is not specifically mentioned in the OR's guidance i think that most OR's would consider legal expenses for a custody battle as reasonable and essential