Mediation Now hold a franchise for legal aid in mediation, so can offer free mediation in some circumstances.
For most cases, you must be financially eligible to receive legal aid. To decide whether you can receive legal aid, the following will be taken into account:
- your disposable income (money left after paying living expenses) - as a rough guide, if your gross income is less than £2530, and your disposable monthly income is less than £698, you may receive help with funding.
- your disposable capital (money, investments or property you could use or sell to pay for legal help). You must not have more than £8000 in capital in order to qualify.
If you are in receipt of Income Support, Job Seekers Allowance (Income based), employment support allowance or Guaranteed State Pension Credit you will automatically qualify for free mediation through the legal aid scheme.
If you qualify for legal aid, you will not have to pay for your mediation, although you may have to pay a contribution. You do not have to worry about paying any costs back later either – legal aid in mediation cases is a gift and not a loan.
Both you and the other party to the mediation will be assessed separately. This could result in one person being eligible whilst the other is not – in this case the non-eligible person must pay for the mediation, and this will be charged at half our usual hourly rate (that is, £100 per hour, plus VAT).
The rules relating to legal aid are complicated, so please ask us for guidance. You can also assess yourself at:
www.communitylegaladvice.org.uk/en/legalaid/calculator.jsp