The short answer
Legal Aid 60 is a free, independent guide to family legal aid in England and Wales, operated by Family Legal Ltd. It takes its name from the 60th anniversary of legal aid, and the domain was originally a government campaign site in 2009. Family Legal Ltd holds a Legal Aid Agency contract for family mediation. This website is separate from that work and is not endorsed by the Legal Aid Agency or any other government body.
The name, and where this domain came from
Legal Aid 60 takes its name from the 60th anniversary of legal aid in England and Wales.
This domain was first used in 2009 by the Legal Services Commission, then the public body responsible for legal aid, for a campaign marking 60 years since the Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949. The Legal Services Commission was abolished in 2013 and its functions passed to the Legal Aid Agency. The domain was then unused for more than a decade.
Legal Aid 60 is now owned and operated by Family Legal Ltd (company number 16431127). We have no connection with the Legal Services Commission, the Ministry of Justice or the UK Government, and no endorsement from any of them. Family Legal Ltd does hold a Legal Aid Agency contract for family mediation, which is the company’s only relationship with the Legal Aid Agency. This website is separate from that work and the Legal Aid Agency has no involvement in what is published here. None of the original content is reproduced on this website.
We kept the name because the purpose is the same: explaining how legal aid works to the people who need it. What has changed is who is explaining it, and that we focus specifically on family legal aid.
Important information
Legal Aid 60 is an independent information website. It is not GOV.UK, the Legal Aid Agency or a government service, and it cannot decide whether you qualify for legal aid.
Only the Legal Aid Agency, or a legal aid provider acting under its contract, can decide that. Nothing on this site is an eligibility assessment, and nothing here is legal advice.
What this site is for
Family legal aid is badly explained almost everywhere, and the consequences of getting it wrong are expensive. Two schemes with different tests get described as though they were one. People are told legal aid was abolished in 2013, which is not true. Guidance published this year still lists benefits that were abolished in April.
This site does four things:
- Explains legal aid for mediation and legal aid for a solicitor separately, because they are separate.
- Gives the current figures with the date they apply from and a link to the source, next to the figure.
- Writes properly for the majority of people who will not qualify, which almost nobody does.
- Says plainly when the official sources disagree with each other, rather than picking one and hoping.
How we keep it accurate
Every figure on this site is stored once, centrally, with its effective date and its source. When a threshold changes we change it in one place and it updates on every page that uses it. Nothing is typed into an article and forgotten.
The whole site is reviewed every three months, rather than the six or twelve months that would be normal for information content. Legal aid thresholds move, benefits get abolished, and schemes get extended or ended at short notice.
Content is written by Jess Knauf and reviewed by Belinda Atkins. Neither is a solicitor and neither presents as one. Our sources lists every official source we rely on with the date it was last checked, so you can audit the claim rather than take it on trust.
Who runs it, and how it is funded
Family Legal Ltd also operates Mediate UK, a family mediation service that holds a Legal Aid Agency contract. That is a commercial relationship and we disclose it on every page where it is relevant.
This site sells nothing, carries no advertising, takes no payment for recommendations and has no affiliate links. How we make money sets that out in full, and who runs this site gives the company details.
If something here is wrong
Tell us and we will fix it. Legal aid rules change often and we would rather be corrected quickly than be right most of the time. Our corrections policy explains what we do when we get something wrong, and how to reach us. You can email help@legalaid60.org.uk directly.