As you are probably aware, from April 2013, legal aid will generally only be available for new private law family work if the applicant is the victim of domestic abuse. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is currently working on the draft regulations setting out the evidence that will be required to demonstrate this. These regulations will be laid before parliament later this year.
One of the proposed routes by which a client will be able to demonstrate that they are the victim of abuse is that there has been a finding of fact in the courts within the last 24 months that the applicant is a victim of domestic violence perpetrated by the other party. A copy of the finding will have to be provided.
If you have a client who is presently going through family proceedings, you will need to consider whether this could be a relevant consideration. Clients whose legal aid certificates are continuously in force will be unaffected. However, if a client ceases to be in receipt of public funding but then has to make a fresh application after April 2013, that client may need to rely on a finding that is being made now.
The MoJ is working with the Court Service to try to produce standard documentation by which judges can record such findings in the future. However, if you are involved in a case now where domestic abuse is an issue, you may wish to consider whether it is in your client's interests to seek to have any order drafted so as to make it apparent from the face of the order that the court was making such a finding.
Other forms of evidence will be accepted, including medical evidence from a registered medical practitioner, records of convictions or cautions, or injunctions and undertakings, so this will not be the client's only chance of securing legal aid in most cases. However, this may be one of the more straightforward means of proving abuse in the context of a new legal aid application post-April 2013, so you should bear this in mind in appropriate cases from now on.