Legal Aid

[Kez_1976]

Hi all,
Edited because scared of leaving any details as I believe police read this? My hubby has been charged with historical indecent assault and what we are wondering is regarding court costs. His solicitor said he needed to apply for legal aid even though he knew he would be refused it but this has to be done in order to put a claim in at court upon receiving a Not Guilty verdict to recover costs. If legal aid wasn't applied for, then you can't ask for costs back.
We have received the legal aid documents back and crown court bill. It says he's not entitled to legal aid and gives a figure of £13000 to pay over 4 months or straight away or else interest charges will be applied etc. it then goes on to say he can get this back if found NG.
My question is, does this include solicitor fees & Barrister fees or is this another bill? Also if the Sol & Barrister fees are on top of this, would we get those fees back too?
Thanks in advance for any advice/help
It is a lot of money to find in such a short time.
X

[Casehardened]

Hi Kez,

Welcome to the forum but sorry that you needed to find us.

If you are eligible for legal aid (and I appreciate that in your instance you're not!) it would include the services of a solicitor and barrister.

Therefore I imagine the figure you've been quoted includes the fees for the legal team.

The CAB have a useful guide (scroll down for the section relating to criminal cases)

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/...criminal_cases

One note of caution: if you are considering paying for your legal team privately (as opposed to through the legal aid scheme), for cases charged after October 2012, these costs cannot be reclaimed even if a NG verdict is achieved.

Whichever route you choose, please ensure that the solicitor is experienced in defending sexual offence allegations.

[Kez_1976]

Thank you so much for your speedy reply. I will have a read. I have no idea if we pay private or legal aid way with us not being accepted for legal aid. It's so confusing. Our solicitor and barrister are great thank you. However solicitor has took ill at weekend, possible heart attack so may need to get a new one. Gulp.

[Casehardened]

Sorry to hear about your solicitor

However if you do need to change there are some forum members recommendations in this thread:

http://www.daftmoo.org.uk/mooforum/s...ist-solicitors

If you decide to go down the private representation route it seems to be generally accepted that Chris Saltrese is one of the best for defending false accusations at a reasonable cost.