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Legal aid for committal proceedings

Date:4 APR 2014
Queen's Counsel and Mediator

David Williams QCMunby P granted criminal legal aid to the alleged contemnor in respect of committal proceedings within Hague Convention proceedings on 6 March 2014. In doing so he referred back to his earlier judgment in Chelmsford County Court v Ramet [2014] EWHC 56 (Fam) [2014] 2 FLR (forthcoming) delivered on 22 January 2014.

In that case he said:

'I turn to legal aid public funding. In Re Jennifer Marie Jones [2013] EWHC 2579 (Fam) para [43] I referred to what as I was told seemed to be the limited availability of public funding in contempt cases. Whatever the limitations of civil funding public funding in contempt cases is available under the criminal scheme. The key provision is regulation 9(v) of the Criminal Legal Aid (General) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/9) which says: "The following proceedings are criminal proceedings for the purposes of section 14(h) of the [Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act...

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