Legal Aid Act 1988

24Contribution orders: supplementary

(1)Where a competent authority grants representation under this Part and in connection with the grant makes a contribution order under which any sum is required to be paid on the making of the order, it may direct that the grant of representation shall not take effect until that sum is paid.

(2)Where a legally assisted person fails to pay any relevant contribution when it is due, the court in which the proceedings for the purposes of which he has been granted representation are being heard may, subject to subsection (3) below, revoke the grant.

(3)A court shall not exercise the power conferred by subsection (2) above unless, after affording the legally assisted person an opportunity of making representations in such manner as may be prescribed, it is satisfied—

(a)that he was able to pay the relevant contribution when it was due; and

(b)that he is able to pay the whole or part of it but has failed or refused to do so.

(4)In subsection (2) above “relevant contribution”, in relation to a legally assisted person, means any sum—

(a)which he is required to pay by a contribution order made in connection with the grant to him of representation under this Part, and

(b)which falls due after the making of the order and before the conclusion of the proceedings for the purposes of which he has been granted such representation.

(5)Regulations with respect to contribution orders may—

(a)provide for their variation or revocation in prescribed circumstances;

(b)provide for their making in default of the prescribed evidence of a person’s financial resources;

(c)regulate their making after the grant of representation;

(d)authorise the remission or authorise or require the repayment in prescribed circumstances of sums due or paid under such orders; and

(e)prescribe the court or body by which any function under the regulations is to be exercisable.

(6)Schedule 3 to this Act shall have effect with respect to the enforcement of contribution orders.