Legal Aid and Legal Costs

Legal Aid is the administration of the Legal Aid Scheme in the Isle of Man. The Scheme is there to allow access to representation in court for those whose means would not otherwise permit them to employ counsel. It is supported by the public purse through the Treasury, and operates within the remit of the Legal Aid Act 1986 to ensure that the funding provided is properly allocated to claimants. Where appropriate there is the power to recover costs against any awards made by the court in favour of the claimant.

Legal Aid for the different types of court proceedings is administered by different areas of the General Registry. Criminal matters are where a crime has allegedly been committed and is usually where a prosecution has been brought either by the Police or another appropriate authority. Civil matters encompass most other matters which come before a court.

For information and guidance on the following areas please click on the links below in the documents box:

Downloadable Documents

Applications for Civil Matters (57 kb)

Format: Acrobat PDF File

Legal Aid for Civil Matters

Applications for Criminal Matters (8 kb)

Format: Acrobat PDF File

Legal Aid for Criminal Matters

You will need Adobe Acrobat to download documents that are PDFs, this is available free by following this link:

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