Crime legal aid in England and Wales

Who criminal legal aid is for

Anyone arrested by the police in England or Wales can ask for a free duty solicitor at the police station, regardless of income or savings. That's a foundational right and the most commonly used part of criminal legal aid.

Once a case progresses to court, the picture changes. The person being prosecuted (the defendant) has to apply for legal aid, and eligibility depends on two tests. The means test looks at income, savings, and household circumstances to decide whether the defendant can afford to pay for their own representation, in full or in part. The merits test asks whether it's in the interests of justice for legal aid to fund the case, taking into account the seriousness of the charges and the complexity of the law. In the magistrates' court, both tests apply; in the Crown Court, the merits test is generally assumed to be met for indictable offences but the means test still applies.

What a crime contract covers

A criminal legal aid contract lets a firm represent clients on three classes of work, each separately authorised:

• Investigations and Proceedings (the standard combination of police-station attendance plus magistrates' court representation). About 95% of criminal cases never leave the magistrates' court, so this is where most defence work happens.
• Appeals (Crown Court trials of serious cases and appellate work). Almost all crime firms hold this alongside Investigations and Proceedings.
• Prison Law (a specialist add-on covering work for serving prisoners: parole hearings, sentence calculation, prison adjudications). Only about 10% of crime firms hold the Prison Law extension; it's listed on the platform as a separate category.

The duty solicitor scheme

When someone is arrested, they have the right to free legal advice at the police station. That advice comes from a duty solicitor on the local rota. Each police-station area is covered by a Duty Solicitor scheme (a DS-number like DS4001 Birmingham); a firm holding a Crime contract bids onto the rota for one or more schemes. The same applies to magistrates' courts: a duty solicitor is available at court for people who arrive without representation, drawn from a rota of firms on that court's scheme.

A firm on a duty scheme is on rota one or two days a month and is who gets called when an unrepresented person needs urgent advice. This is separate from the work a firm does on its own clients' cases.

Finding a criminal legal aid solicitor

If you've been arrested, the police will call a duty solicitor automatically when you ask. You don't need to know any firm name in advance.

If you're already facing prosecution and want to choose a firm yourself, every solicitor firm holding a Crime contract appears on this hub. You can browse by location and see which schemes each firm is on.