What is the difference between public funding and legal aid

Search for a barrister. Is your legal matter business or personal? Business Personal. Which area of law do you need assistance in? Art Commercial. Art Personal. Clinical Negligence. Commercial Property. Contractual Disputes. Court of Protection. Criminal Defence. Debt Recovery. Education Law.

Election Law. Employment; Employee. Employment; Employer. Environmental Law. Financial Services. For more detailed information on the mandate and activities of the Legal Aid Program, please contact:. You will not receive a reply. For enquiries, please contact us. Legal Aid Program Overview The Legal Aid Program is a cost-shared program that provides contribution funding to the provinces and territories for the delivery of legal aid services for economically disadvantaged persons.

Who is eligible? These cases usually arise when an individual is unable to obtain criminal legal aid and the matter is complex with the potential for incarceration and as a result the court may stay proceedings until the prosecuting Crown provides funded defence counsel.

In federal prosecutions e. Controlled Drugs and Substances Act or war crimes cases , the federal government is responsible for paying court-ordered counsel costs. Managing Your Legal Costs. Private Funding This is when clients pay our costs directly. There are different ways this can work: Fixed fee — a price is quoted to carry out the work and regardless of how many hours are spent on the case, this is the amount that will be charged.

Generally Divorces and Wills are quoted on this basis. Other fixed fee work can be negotiated at the time of instructing us. Hourly rate — this is when you are charged according to the number of hours worked on your case. At Routh Clarke we work differently to other solicitors in that we charge by the grade of work done rather than the person doing it.

Work is graded into 4 categories according to law Society bands. In practice it means you may have a grade A person working on your case, but if they are merely forwarding an email from the other side or doing other grade D work, you will only be charged at a grade D rate. This gives your case consistency and means the same person will work on it the whole time, giving you peace of mind, at the same time as keeping costs to a minimum.

In these circumstances, especially where the allegations against you are of a serious nature, it is crucial that you secure the best representation possible from highly experienced lawyers who are not bound by any restraints in respect of the preparation of your case.

If you instruct us and fund for your case privately, then you will have complete control of your case. You are guaranteed to receive the best legal representation as your choices will not be limited.

We will ensure that the barrister instructed in respect of your matter, is not a generic barrister, but rather will have specific expertise in respect of the allegations that you face.

Highly experienced lawyers will carry out the preparation of your case working at all times under a specialist criminal solicitor to ensure that we assemble the best evidence possible and identify and exploit various avenues of defending your case and not just the obvious.

The extensive knowledge of our solicitors and their perseverance in striving to secure the best outcome means that we adopt a no stone unturned approach to all of our cases. We have a panel of experts who are arguably the best in the country whom we instruct on a regular basis.

The quality of evidence they offer should not be undervalued as it could potentially make the difference between success and failure.

We only provide our services on a privately funded basis and the mere reason for this is we aim to provide the best representation to our clients and do not like the quality of our work to be compromised in any way.