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 In Scotland, legal aid is governed by the Scottish Legal Aid Board which offers schemes to assistant the poor and needy. The schemes can be broken down into the following 4 main streams:
- Advice and assistance
- Civil legal aid
- Legal aid for criminal proceedings
- Other sources of legal assistance
Advice and assistance legal aid
This allows people on low earning with saving less then £1,450 to get free legal advice and assistance from a practising solicitor. It covers such things as divorce, disputes about children, contested adoptions, preparing for tribunals, making wills, and accident claims. Anyone over the aged of 16 and apply. This scheme only allows solicitors to do a very small amount of work.
Civil legal aid
This scheme assists people to pay for representation by solicitor or an advocate in the civil courts such as the “Sheriff Court” and the “Court of Session”. Depending on the applicant’s income and saving legal advice given may be for free, or it may require a small contribution towards the cost. Civil aid can cover cases concerning:
- road or work accidents – compensation for injuries, damages to vehicle and/or other losses
- housing problems – such as eviction, repairs and/or rent arrears
- debt – recovering debts of over £750
- consumer problems – compensation for faulty goods or services
- divorce, including dissolution of civil partnerships and disputes about children.
Legal aid for criminal proceedings
 This aid is available for applicants charge with criminal offences to cover representation cost by a solicitors or advocates, and for any bail applications. Getting this aid will depend on the financial circumstances of the accused. The assessment will depend on whether the expenses of the case would mean ‘undue’ hardship for the accused (or dependants).
Other sources of legal assistance
Depending on the matter, applicant may be able to seek legal assistance from other sources such as:
- Trade unions
- Motoring Organisations
- Legal Expenses Insurance
- Free and Fixed Interviews
- Speculative fee agreements
- Specialist Adviser
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