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Access to Justice Act 1999

  • Explanatory Notes Table of contents

Please note:

All reference to 'Parts' and 'sections' are from the Access to Justice Act 1999. For other versions of these Explanatory Notes, see More Resources.

  1. Introduction

  2. Overview

    1. A.

      Funding of legal services (Parts I & II – sections 1-34 )

    2. B.

      Provision of legal services (Part III – sections 35-53)

    3. C.

      Appeals, courts, judges and court proceedings (Part IV - sections 54-73)

    4. D.

      Magistrates and magistrates’ courts (Part V - sections 74-97)

    5. E.

      Immunity and indemnity (Parts VI - sections 98-104)

  3. A.

    FUNDING OF LEGAL SERVICES (Parts I & II, sections 1-34)

    1. Summary

      1. Community Legal Service

      2. Criminal Defence Service

      3. Conditional fees etc.

    2. Background

      1. Legal Aid

        1. Quality assurance and contract pilots

      2. Advice sector

      3. Conditional fees

    3. Commentary

      1. Part I: The Legal Services Commission

        1. The Commission

        2. The Community Legal Service

        3. The Criminal Defence Service

        4. Supplementary

      2. Part II: Other funding of legal services

        1. Conditional fee and litigation funding agreements

        2. Costs

        3. Legal aid in Scotland

  4. B.

    PROVISION OF LEGAL SERVICES (Sections 35-53)

    1. Summary

    2. Background

      1. Rights of audience etc.

      2. Complaints handling

    3. Commentary

      1. The Legal Services Consultative Panel

      2. Rights of audience and rights to conduct litigation

      3. Barristers and solicitors

      4. Legal Services Ombudsman

      5. Legal Services Complaints Commissioner

      6. Public notaries

  5. C.

    APPEALS, COURTS, ETC. (Part IV - sections 54-73)

    1. Summary

    2. Background

    3. Commentary

      1. Appeals

      2. Civil division of Court of Appeal

      3. High Court

      4. Crown Court

      5. Judges etc.

      6. Court proceedings

  6. D.

    MAGISTRATES AND MAGISTRATES’ COURTS (Part V - sections 74-97)

    1. Summary

    2. Background

      1. Organisation and management of the magistrates’ courts service

        1. Altering territorial units

        2. Constitution and funding of MCCs

        3. A single authority for London

        4. Justices’ clerks and justices’ chief executives

        5. Unification of the stipendiary bench

        6. Committals for sentence

        7. Execution of warrants

    3. Commentary

      1. Territorial organisation

      2. Justices

      3. Magistrates’ courts committees (MCCs)

      4. Justices’ chief executives, justices’ clerks and staff

      5. Execution of warrants

  7. E.

    IMMUNITY AND INDEMNITY  (Part VI - sections 98-104)

    1. Summary

    2. Background

    3. Commentary

      1. Justices and their clerks

      2. General Commissioners of income tax and their clerks

      3. Coroners

    4. Commencement

      1. Funding of legal services

      2. Provision of legal services

      3. Appeals, courts, judges and court proceedings

      4. Magistrates and magistrates’ courts

      5. Immunity and indemnity

    5. Parliamentary Progress

  • Explanatory Notes Table of contents

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Explanatory Notes

Text created by the government department responsible for the subject matter of the Act to explain what the Act sets out to achieve and to make the Act accessible to readers who are not legally qualified. Explanatory Notes were introduced in 1999 and accompany all Public Acts except Appropriation, Consolidated Fund, Finance and Consolidation Acts.

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