On 18/05/2013,
you requested for the version in force on 18/05/2013
incorporating all amendments published on or before 18/05/2013.
The closest version currently available is that of 01/01/2013.
12.
—(1) Every set of papers delivered by the Director to a solicitor acting for an aided person shall be marked with the words “Legal Aid”.
(2) Where it appears to the aided person’s solicitor necessary for the proper conduct of the proceedings to take or to apply to the court for leave to take any one or more of the following steps, namely:
(a)
to add any further party to the proceedings;
(b)
to request any record of any proceedings;
(c)
to lodge any interlocutory appeal;
(d)
to instruct more than one solicitor; or
(e)
to set-up or set-off any right or claim having the same effect as a cross-action (other than a counterclaim or set-off arising out of the same transaction and capable of being pleaded as a defence) or to reply to any right or claim so set-up or so set-off by any other party,
he shall (unless the legal aid certificate provides for the act in question to be done) apply to the Director for authority to do so, and no payment shall be allowed on taxation for any such step taken without the approval of the Director.
(3) The Director may give general authority to solicitors acting for aided persons in any particular class of cases to obtain experts’ opinion and to tender expert evidence, and if so he shall state the maximum fee to be paid for any report or opinion or the expert witness.
(4) Where it appears to an aided person’s solicitor necessary for the proper conduct of the proceedings —
(a)
to obtain a report or opinion of one or more experts or to tender expert evidence in a case of a class not included in any general authority under paragraph (3); or
(b)
in a case of a class so included, to pay a higher fee than that stated by the Director or to obtain more reports or opinions or to tender more experts as witnesses than have been authorised,
he may apply to the Director for authority to do so and if the Director gives the authority, he shall state the maximum number of reports or opinions that may be obtained or the maximum number of persons who may be tendered to give expert evidence and the maximum total fee to be paid therefor.
(5) Except as provided by this regulation, no payment shall be made for the report or opinion of an expert or for expert evidence tendered by or on behalf of an aided person.
(6) Where it appears to the aided person’s solicitor necessary for the proper conduct of the proceedings that a certain act should be done, but that act is either unusual in its nature or involves unusually large expenditure, he may request the Director’s prior approval to carry out the act and, where such prior approval has been obtained, no question as to the propriety of the act shall be raised on taxation as between solicitor and client in accordance with regulation 15.
(7) Without prejudice to the right of a solicitor to discharge himself from acting for a client for a good reason, any solicitor may discharge himself from acting for an aided person if, in his opinion, the aided person has required the solicitor to conduct the proceedings in such a manner so as to incur an unjustifiable expense to the Fund or has unreasonably insisted on the continuance of the proceedings.
(8) Where any solicitor exercises the right to discharge himself —
(a)
pursuant to paragraph (7); or
(b)
on the ground that the aided person has wilfully failed to provide any information required by him or that the aided person in furnishing the information has knowingly made a false representation,
the solicitor shall make a report to the Director of the circumstances in which that right was exercised.
(9) No solicitor acting for an aided person shall entrust the conduct of any part of the case to any other person.
(10) An aided person’s solicitor shall give the Director such information regarding the progress and disposal of proceedings to which the certificate relates as the Director may, from time to time, require for the purpose of performing his functions under the Act and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, a solicitor who has acted or is acting for an aided person shall, on being satisfied that the aided person has died or has had a receiving order made against him, report that fact to the Director.
(11) A solicitor shall not be precluded, by reason of any privilege arising out of the relationship between solicitor and client, from disclosing to the Director any information or from giving any opinion which may enable the Director to perform his functions under the Act.