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Hi
I'm only at the start of my journey in that I've been charged but my court date has been moved due to Covid etc etc. Mags court is coming up soon (provided it doesn't move again).
Recently I was denied legal aid as the Legal Aid agency has taken my business earnings for the past 12 months (of which there are really only 4 months of earnings) in to consideration when calculating my eligibility for legal aid. This has taken me over the threshold for legal aid. I don't know if they should be considering these or not - given that they are not my funds but belong to the business. If they are required to be considered then do they need to take in to account the fact that a good portion of these funds are yet to be paid to HMRC in various forms of tax so actually belong to the taxpayer and not me or my business at all? Either way would bring me under the threshold for legal aid.
I did query this with my solicitor who got back to me today and advised that it's going to be 'cheaper to pay privately' (her words). Nothing to address whether the legal aid agency should be or should not be considering these funds.
The costs I've been given are £1000+vat for mags court and $1500+vat for each crown court hearing. She mentioned that there should only be one hearing at crown court which surprised me as I was expecting to be sent away from crown court and a pre-sentence report ordered. I have sent her an email to query this and also query who I'm paying - the court or the solicitors firm (not that I mind which - just would like to know the process).
I guess the questions I have around this being normal are:
Is it normal to have a pre-sentence report or not?
On legal aid
- should my business earnings be considered as part of the eligibility criteria for legal aid?
- if they should then should that money owed (but not due) to HMRC be deducted before they take a figure for eligibility?
- Are the figures I've been quoted actual court fees or are they solicitors fees and actually there may be additional court fees on top of those?
Thanks
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