ABSTRACT
It will be recalled that new generation public funding pursuant to the Administration of Justice Act (AJA) 1999 has preserved the statutory charge imposed in s 16 of the Legal Aid Act 1988 (which is the section referred to in the case law on this subject). This requires the Legal Services Commission (LSC) if possible to recover its costs of the ancillary relief proceedings (and also of any other proceedings financed on behalf of the assisted person, such as for an order under the Children Act 1989). The impact of this is normally felt in relation to property recovered or preserved in the ancillary relief package obtained, in particular usually in the form of a statutory charge taken over the home to avoid the property having to be sold in order to finance the very proceedings in which it was recently awarded to the assisted person (see Chapter 11). It will therefore always be necessary to bear the statutory charge in mind if it applies when deciding on which particular ancillary relief package to go for, another clear example of the influence of procedural matters on the black letter law.
