The short answer
Most people who look into legal aid will not get it, and being turned down is not the end of the road. Check first that the refusal was right, because the allowances and the disregard for disputed assets are often missed. Then look at Help with Fees, which is a separate scheme with a different test, at free advice from law centres and Citizens Advice, and at mediation, which is cheaper than anything else that works.
Key points
- Check the refusal first. Allowances for a partner and children, housing costs and the £100,000 disregard for assets in dispute change the answer more often than people expect.
- Help with Fees is not legal aid. Different scheme, different test, and plenty of people who fail one pass the other.
- Refusal on merits can be appealed. Refusal on scope cannot.
- Law centres, Citizens Advice and university clinics give genuinely free advice, and they are not selling anything.
- Advocate matches people with barristers who act for nothing.
- You may already have legal expenses cover on a home insurance policy or through a union and not know it.
You have been told you do not qualify. What now?
First, some perspective. Since 2013 the great majority of people in family disputes have not been eligible for a funded solicitor. You are in the ordinary position, not an unlucky one, and there is a well-worn path from here.
Second, find out which test you failed, because the answers are completely different. Refused because your case is out of scope is not the same as refused on income, and neither is the same as refused on merits.
Third, and most importantly, do not conclude that you now have to either pay a solicitor thousands or do everything alone. That is a false choice, and most of this page is about the ground in between.
Check first: are you sure? Three things people get wrong
- The allowances. The means test does not look at your gross pay and stop. It takes off tax and national insurance, housing costs up to a cap, and fixed allowances for a partner and for every dependant. Someone on a salary that sounds far too high can still be inside the disposable income limit with two children and a mortgage.
- The disregard for assets in dispute. Up to £100,000 of the capital you are actually arguing about can be ignored. People rule themselves out because of equity in a house that is the very thing in dispute, which is exactly the situation the rule exists for.
- Which scheme you asked about. If you rang a solicitor and were told no, that was solicitor legal aid. It tells you nothing at all about mediation legal aid, which has a different scope and no gateway.
Work through the means test properly before accepting the answer.
The figures
Assets you are arguing about can be ignored, up to £100,000
This is the rule that surprises people most. If the house or the savings are the very thing in dispute, the Legal Aid Agency can leave a large part of them out of the calculation. It is called the subject matter of the dispute disregard.
| Rule | How it works |
|---|---|
| Maximum ignored | £100,000 |
| What it applies to | Capital only. Income can never be treated this way |
| What counts as in dispute | An asset actually being claimed in the proceedings, not simply one you own |
| A jointly owned asset in dispute | You are treated as owning half of it |
Where the family home is in dispute, three things are done in this order: the mortgage is taken off to find the equity, then up to £100,000 of your share of that equity is ignored as the disputed asset, then a further equity disregard of up to £100,000 is applied to whatever is left.
Source: Lord Chancellor’s guidance on determining financial eligibility for controlled work and family mediation, section 7.4. That is the right source for mediation. The Means Assessment Guidance covers certificated work and says so. Checked 5 August 2026.
Help with Fees is separate from legal aid
This is the one most often missed. Help with Fees is a different scheme with a different test, run by HM Courts and Tribunals Service, and it reduces or removes the fee you pay to issue an application. It has nothing to do with paying a lawyer.
The savings limit is far more generous for people aged 66 or over, and being on certain benefits or a low income can remove the fee entirely. On a £628 divorce application that is real money, and on a contested financial application it is £321.
Apply on GOV.UK at get help paying court fees, and do it before you pay, because getting a refund afterwards is harder than not paying in the first place.
The figures
Family court fees in England and Wales
| Application | Fee |
|---|---|
| Apply for a divorce, dissolution or nullity | £628 |
| Financial order by consent, including a clean break | £62 |
| Contested financial order, the Form A application | £321 |
| Child arrangements, the C100 | £270 |
| General application within proceedings, D11 or C2 | £195 |
| Non-molestation or occupation order, the FL401 | No fee |
| Domestic Abuse Protection Order applied for by a victim | No fee |
There is no court fee to apply for a non-molestation or occupation order. Protection from abuse does not cost money at the court counter. You may pay for legal help to prepare it, and that is what legal aid can cover.
Help with Fees is separate from legal aid and can reduce or remove a court fee. Many people who do not qualify for legal aid do qualify for Help with Fees.
In force from 13 July 2026. Sources: the Ministry of Justice announcement and the fees order, SI 2026/642. Free applications: GOV.UK, injunctions: protection from domestic abuse. Checked 5 August 2026.
Free advice: law centres, Citizens Advice, university clinics
Genuinely free, genuinely independent, and not trying to sell you anything.
- Law Centres Network, for specialist free legal advice from qualified lawyers. Coverage is patchy by area and capacity is limited, so ring early.
- Citizens Advice, for the practical questions around the legal ones: benefits, debt, housing, and what to do first.
- University law clinics. Many law schools run free clinics supervised by qualified solicitors. Search for your nearest university plus law clinic.
- RCJ Advice, at the Royal Courts of Justice, which runs family services including for litigants in person.
- Support Through Court, for practical and emotional support on the day of a hearing, though not legal advice.
Where to get genuinely free legal advice has the detail on what each one can and cannot do.
Pro bono: what Advocate does and how to apply
Advocate is the Bar’s pro bono charity. It matches people who cannot pay and cannot get legal aid with barristers who take the case for nothing.
Two things to know. You usually need to apply through a referral agency such as a law centre or Citizens Advice rather than directly, and you need to apply well ahead of any hearing, because finding a barrister willing and free at the right time takes weeks. Applying the week before will not work.
It is not a long shot worth dismissing. For a discrete, well-defined problem, it is one of the better options on this page. How to apply to Advocate.
Fixed-fee legal services
Between full representation and doing it alone sits a large middle ground: paying a set price for a defined piece of work rather than paying by the hour for everything.
The most common example in family law is having a financial agreement drafted into a consent order. That is a discrete job with a known price, and it is the single piece of legal work most worth paying for, because a badly drafted order is expensive to fix and an absent one leaves your finances open indefinitely.
Before you buy anything, ask what is included, what is not, what happens if the court raises a query, and whether the price includes the court fee. A fixed fee that turns into hourly billing at the first complication is not a fixed fee.
Providers who publish a full price list make that check easier. Family Law Service, which is run by Family Legal Ltd, the company behind this site, lists set prices for consent orders and court form work, and a number of other firms do the same, so you can compare like for like before you commit.
McKenzie Friends
A McKenzie Friend sits with you in court, takes notes, helps you keep track and quietly gives advice. Anyone can do it, and a friend or family member often can.
What a McKenzie Friend cannot do, unless the judge specifically permits it in that hearing, is speak for you, run your case or sign documents. There is no automatic right to address the court, and no qualification or regulation is required to call yourself one.
Paid McKenzie Friends exist and vary enormously. If you use one, ask what they charge, what they are and are not insured for, and what happens if the judge refuses them rights of audience. Be careful of anyone who promises an outcome.
Representing yourself
Around 80 per cent of private family cases now involve at least one person representing themselves, and in 2025 neither party had a lawyer in 47 per cent of them. The system has adapted to this more than it had ten years ago, and judges are used to it.
It is hardest where the other side has a lawyer and you do not, and where the case turns on legal argument rather than facts. It is most manageable where the facts are agreed and the question is what is fair.
If you are going to do it, prepare like it is a job: a chronology, a schedule of assets with documents behind every figure, and a short written summary of what you are asking for and why. Judges respond to organisation.
Legal expenses insurance you may already have
Check before you spend anything. Legal expenses cover is bundled into a lot of home and contents policies, some bank accounts, some credit cards, and most trade union memberships, and people routinely pay for it for years without knowing.
Family matters are commonly excluded, so do not raise your hopes. But it takes ten minutes to look at the policy schedule or ring and ask, and if you are a union member it is worth a call regardless, because many unions offer free initial legal advice on family matters even where the insurance does not cover the case.
Mediation, even where it is not funded
Ending up here is not a consolation prize. Mediation is usually the cheapest route that actually resolves things, and if you are paying for everything yourself the arithmetic is stark: a few mediation sessions against a contested court case that can run into five figures for each of you.
Two funding points bear repeating, because both survive a legal aid refusal. If one of you qualifies for mediation legal aid, the MIAM and the first joint session are covered for both of you. And the £500 voucher is not means tested at all, so if children are part of what you are sorting out, it is available whatever you earn.
A refusal of solicitor legal aid says nothing about either. Legal aid for mediation, and the voucher.
The figures
The Family Mediation Voucher Scheme
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| How much | Up to £500 per family, including VAT |
| Means tested? | No. Your income and savings are irrelevant |
| What it is for | Mediation about child arrangements, or about finances where there is also a child dispute |
| What it does not cover | The MIAM, and preparing documents |
| A finance-only case | Does not qualify |
| Who claims it | Your mediator, who must be authorised by the Family Mediation Council. The money goes to them, not to you |
| Status | Funded for the 2026 to 2027 financial year. No fixed end date, and subject to availability |
Sources: the £500 amount, the child arrangements scope and the fact that it does not cover the MIAM are all confirmed by the Family Mediation Council. That it is not means tested comes from the Ministry of Justice’s own Family Mediation Voucher Scheme Analysis, which states that “access to the voucher scheme is not based on a family’s income or finances and those who are eligible for Legal Aid are not excluded from the scheme”. Checked 5 August 2026. This scheme has been extended several times and could end, so please confirm it is still running before relying on it.
If you are in danger, this is different
Everything above assumes you have time to weigh up options. If you do not, stop reading and use the numbers below.
There is no court fee to apply for a non-molestation order or an occupation order. Protection does not cost money at the court counter. Legal aid for a solicitor is still available to victims of domestic abuse who are financially eligible, and where there is immediate risk it can be granted urgently with the finances checked afterwards.
Urgent help
If you are in danger, this comes first
Nothing on this page matters more than your safety. None of these services will ask you to prove anything before they help you.
- In an emergency, call 999. If you cannot speak, dial 999, listen to the operator, and press 55 when prompted. That is the silent solution, and it tells the police you need help without you having to say a word
- National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge, free and open 24 hours: 0808 2000 247
- Men’s Advice Line, for men experiencing abuse: 0808 801 0327
- Galop, for LGBT+ people experiencing abuse: 0800 999 5428
There is no court fee to apply for a non-molestation or occupation order, and legal aid for a solicitor is still available to victims of domestic abuse who are financially eligible.
Jess’s view
“The people I worry about are the ones who hear no and decide the only options left are a solicitor they cannot afford or nothing at all. Almost nobody is actually in that position. There is a lot of ground between those two, and most of it is cheaper than they fear.”
Jess Knauf, Director of Client Strategy at Family Legal Ltd