Paying back Legal Aid

artgirl1

A couple of years ago my landlord took me to court over rent arrears, I counter- sued as the property was in very a very poor state of repair. The case went to a magistrate's court and he lost. He had to pay his court costs, but not mine. I had Legal Aid. My Mother has recently died and left me some money, not a great deal, but more than I had expected. I have been told that the Legal Aid board can claim back my legal aid costs from this money. Does this mean that I won't  see any of it?

Keep_pedalling

Unlikely, you have to inform the legal aid people of any changes to your financial situation while a case is ongoing but not once it is closed.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/860909/Client_Legal_Aid_Leaflet.pdf

Manxman_in_exile

Were you assessed as having to make a contribution towards your legal aid costs at the time?  Do you already know that you owe them something?  I don't see why you subsequently coming into an inheritance should affect your liability for something that happened a "couple of years ago", but I could easily be wrong.  Not sure this is the appropriate board to ask on, but not sure which would be.

You could try posting here:  https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/305-general-legal-issues/

Have you seen this leaflet or any of the others on the legal aid website(s)?

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/860909/Client_Legal_Aid_Leaflet.pdf

Marcon

artgirl1 said:

A couple of years ago my landlord took me to court over rent arrears, I counter- sued as the property was in very a very poor state of repair. The case went to a magistrate's court and he lost. He had to pay his court costs, but not mine. I had Legal Aid. My Mother has recently died and left me some money, not a great deal, but more than I had expected. I have been told that the Legal Aid board can claim back my legal aid costs from this money. Does this mean that I won't  see any of it?

That famous phrase - "I have been told....". Who told you? Ask them to point you towards the source of their information.

TBagpuss

*normally* you have to pay back legal aid if you recover or preserve property or assets - so at the time, if your landlord paid anything to you, you would have had to tell the LAB and use that to pay them back.

In some cases, for instance where you retain a right to a house but it is not being sold yet, the LAB may take a charge over it, and then they are repaid (with interest) when the house sells.  However, if you *didn't* recover or preserve assets then you probably don't owe them anything .