Multiple grants of aid guidelines (higher court criminal law matters only)

Effective from 16 December 2013, the multiple grants of aid guidelines no longer apply to summary matters, please refer to definition of a new matter.

Payment rules

Only one grant of aid is claimable for all charges when they are dealt with at the same time in the same court.

Preparation

More than one preparation fee can only be claimed if the practitioner has prepared or has substantially prepared a matter when a new charge(s) are laid and these charges require the practitioner to undertake further preparation.

Court attendance

Where matters are separately prepared and separate grants of aid are issued but the matters are joined and heard at the same time, only one court time can be claimed.

Audit requirements

File notes for all attendances must be retained on the practitioner’s files. It is expected that practitioners can demonstrate on audit that each distinct grant was required at the time.

In circumstances where a practitioner claims preparation on more than one matter it must be evident from their file notes that the matters had to be separately prepared as one matter had been fully or substantially prepared prior to additional charges being laid that required further preparation.

Last updated 7 December 2015