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Hi everyone I am currently having a really difficult time getting information in regard to a legal aid contribution order I'm being asked to pay and was hoping maybe somebody may be able to shed some light on what my options are.
Around March 2020 I was charged with an offence and was due to appear in crown court, I contacted a solicitor who said I would need to apply for legal aid, at the time I had no capital, covid restrictions had stopped me from working due to being a chef and I was in the process of signing on to universal credit. The solicitor dealt with the application for legal aid and all correspondence from the LAA went directly to them. I initially had to provide 3 months of bank statements for the means test which I was informed I had failed and was ordered to pay £7,995.00 towards my legal costs. I couldn't understand how the LAA had come to this conclusion so I asked my solicitor to appeal this decision to which as far as I was aware at the time he did so and I provided further evidence such as a P60 I also provided evidence of my claim to universal credit to support this and I was reassured by my solicitor that I would not be liable to pay anything towards my legal costs it was quite clear I was not earning anywhere near the threshold of £37,500.00 disposable income and neither did I have any capital or assets.
The court case concluded around June/July 2020 I had pleaded guilty was given a suspended prison sentence and went on my way I don't recall receiving any correspondence from my solicitor or the LAA in regard to any outstanding contributions towards my legal costs after the conclusion of the case and just assumed the solicitor had sorted it all out back when he asked me to provide further evidence in March/April 2020.
In July 2024 I received a letter from a company called Marston's holdings LTD claiming that I owed in the region of £4,500 for legal aid contributions, this was obviously a surprise to me so I contacted the LAA they emailed me 5 letters of correspondence which had all been sent to my solicitor these were all dated between March and June 2020 there is no mention of the £4,500 sum quoted in the Marston's Holdings letter on any of the LAA letters I asked if I could appeal this but the LAA said I could not and that I would need to take it up with my solicitor i also asked to make a complaint but was never forwarded an information to do so. I also contacted my solicitor to try get to the bottom of this they had very little to say on the matter and that they could not help me with this matter.
I've since been to Citizens Advice they had no idea how to deal with it except to try contact the legal ombudsman which I also did and they were not able to help me either I've contacted other solicitor firms as well and so far no body has been able to offer me advice on how to proceed.
My main concern is that the LAA initial calculation was incorrect, my solicitor had attempted to rectify this but it doesn't seem to have been done correctly so surely I should be able to appeal this in some meaningful way where I can provide documentation to show I was not earning enough for there calculation to be correct but I can't find any information on how to do this I also find it strange that its taken four years for me to be contacted about it by Marston's Holdings LTD which also supports the fact that I genuinely had no idea I owed this money until July 2024 because if I had known about it at the time of the court case then I would have acted on it then not four years later what's also strange is since that letter from Marston's Holdings LTD in July 2024 there has been no further correspondence from them at all and its been roughly 8 months since that letter.
Thank you for taking the time to read this any advice right now would be greatly appreciated.
Around March 2020 I was charged with an offence and was due to appear in crown court, I contacted a solicitor who said I would need to apply for legal aid, at the time I had no capital, covid restrictions had stopped me from working due to being a chef and I was in the process of signing on to universal credit. The solicitor dealt with the application for legal aid and all correspondence from the LAA went directly to them. I initially had to provide 3 months of bank statements for the means test which I was informed I had failed and was ordered to pay £7,995.00 towards my legal costs. I couldn't understand how the LAA had come to this conclusion so I asked my solicitor to appeal this decision to which as far as I was aware at the time he did so and I provided further evidence such as a P60 I also provided evidence of my claim to universal credit to support this and I was reassured by my solicitor that I would not be liable to pay anything towards my legal costs it was quite clear I was not earning anywhere near the threshold of £37,500.00 disposable income and neither did I have any capital or assets.
The court case concluded around June/July 2020 I had pleaded guilty was given a suspended prison sentence and went on my way I don't recall receiving any correspondence from my solicitor or the LAA in regard to any outstanding contributions towards my legal costs after the conclusion of the case and just assumed the solicitor had sorted it all out back when he asked me to provide further evidence in March/April 2020.
In July 2024 I received a letter from a company called Marston's holdings LTD claiming that I owed in the region of £4,500 for legal aid contributions, this was obviously a surprise to me so I contacted the LAA they emailed me 5 letters of correspondence which had all been sent to my solicitor these were all dated between March and June 2020 there is no mention of the £4,500 sum quoted in the Marston's Holdings letter on any of the LAA letters I asked if I could appeal this but the LAA said I could not and that I would need to take it up with my solicitor i also asked to make a complaint but was never forwarded an information to do so. I also contacted my solicitor to try get to the bottom of this they had very little to say on the matter and that they could not help me with this matter.
I've since been to Citizens Advice they had no idea how to deal with it except to try contact the legal ombudsman which I also did and they were not able to help me either I've contacted other solicitor firms as well and so far no body has been able to offer me advice on how to proceed.
My main concern is that the LAA initial calculation was incorrect, my solicitor had attempted to rectify this but it doesn't seem to have been done correctly so surely I should be able to appeal this in some meaningful way where I can provide documentation to show I was not earning enough for there calculation to be correct but I can't find any information on how to do this I also find it strange that its taken four years for me to be contacted about it by Marston's Holdings LTD which also supports the fact that I genuinely had no idea I owed this money until July 2024 because if I had known about it at the time of the court case then I would have acted on it then not four years later what's also strange is since that letter from Marston's Holdings LTD in July 2024 there has been no further correspondence from them at all and its been roughly 8 months since that letter.
Thank you for taking the time to read this any advice right now would be greatly appreciated.
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