The LAA is to increase the default costs limits on a range of civil certificates. The new limits are:
- Actions against the police etc – £6,000
- Community care – £3,500
- Immigration and asylum- £4,500
- Mental health – £5,000
- Special Children Act cases – £9,000
The new higher limits apply only to substantive cases within the category, not to judicial review. Certificates for judicial review cases, and for categories not listed above, remain at existing default limits. The process for applying to amend a costs limit hasn’t changed, but the LAA hopes fewer applications will be necessary.
Emergency certificates remain at a default limit of £1,350 – though you can exercise the delegated function to amend the cost limit up to £10,000 as long as it is to do urgent work and the emergency certificate hasn’t expired or been subsumed into a substantive one.
Legal Aid Handbook 