Legal Aid Agency

3. Miss H complains that LAA disallowed her 2021 application for legal aid in error.

4. She says she experienced a miscarriage of justice because of not being represented at appeal and sentencing hearings.

5. Miss H wants a financial payment.

6. Miss H made an application for a transfer of legal aid through her solicitors in 2021.

7. She had been convicted of a criminal offence and wanted to change her legal representation before the sentencing hearing. She also wanted to appeal the conviction.

8. Miss H’s application was refused by LAA twice and it asked for more information to support her request. After getting a complaint in August 2023, LAA said it could have accepted the application in June 2021, before the sentencing hearing. Miss H told us she was not represented at the sentencing hearing and was unable to get help from her chosen solicitors for appeal.

9. Miss H believes the refusal caused a miscarriage of justice because her solicitors told her they were unable to represent her.

11. The Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 (the law) gives us powers to investigate but there are some things we cannot look at.

12. The law says we cannot investigate if the person complaining has or had the option of taking legal action and it was reasonable for them to do this. We also cannot investigate if there is ongoing legal action.

13. Miss H told us she has made an application for judicial review proceedings against LAA.

14. Judicial review is a type of court proceeding where a judge reviews the lawfulness of a decision or action made by a public body. As judicial review is a form of legal action, we cannot investigate the complaint.

1. We have carefully considered Miss H’s complaint about the Legal Aid Agency (LAA). We have decided not to take any further action because she is already taking legal proceedings against LAA. We will explain this decision in more detail below.

2. We hope the information in this statement reassures Miss H that we have considered all the information she gave us.