Application for order finding the defendant and others to be in contempt of court in breaching an order as to the use of land for residential purposes.
Held: A committal application has the character of criminal proceedings. The alleged contemnor is therefore entitled to legal aid, so that he can be properly represented. As to the availability of public funding for professional representation of a party subject to an application for committal for contempt of court and Regulation 9(v) of the 2013 Regulations, Blake J said: ‘I consider that the present drafting of that regulation combined with the terms of the prescribed form CRM14 are likely to give rise to very real difficulty within the profession in knowing how to apply for legal aid for contempt proceedings in the High Court and the judiciary in knowing how to determine such applications until the matter is clarified. I would hope that following this judgment thought can be given to making appropriate changes to both so that applicants consulting the Regulations will not have to read this judgment to make sense of them, assuming that it has done so.’
Blake J
[2013] EWHC 3390 (QB), [2014] 2 All ER 1095, [2014] 1 Costs LO 85, [2015] 1 WLR 531
Bailii
Criminal Legal Aid (General) Regulations 2013 9(v)
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Inplayer Ltd and Another v Thorogood CA 25-Nov-2014
Appeal against a decision that the first defendant in a chancery action was guilty of two contempts of court by reason of untruthful statements in his affidavit. He complained of procedural irregularities affecting the fairness.
Held: ‘the . .
Cited – Discovery Land Company Llc and Others v Jirehouse and Others ChD 7-Jun-2019
The first claimant had requested the committal of a defendant for his alleged failure to comply with undertakings he had given to the court. He now sought an adjournment saying that he had not been advised of the availability of legal aid, and . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Planning, Contempt of Court, Legal Aid
Updated: 13 December 2021; Ref: scu.517505