The Access to Justice Act 1999 is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the Parliamentary sovereignty in the United Kingdom, supreme Legislature, legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of We ...

. It replaced the legal aid system in

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is ...

. It created the Legal Services Commission, replacing the Legal Aid Board, and two new schemes: Community Legal Service to fund civil and family cases, and the Criminal Defence Service for criminal cases. The Act put a cap on the amount spent on civil legal aid. The use of conditional fee agreements, commonly known as "no-win no-fee", was extended to most civil court cases.

Rights of appeal

Section 54 of the Act both creates and limits rights of appeal. One effect of this, as set out in the UK Supreme Court Practice Direction 1 is "The most important general restriction on rights of appeal is section 54(4) of the Access to Justice Act 1999. The effect of this provision is that the Supreme Court may not entertain any appeal against an order of the Court of Appeal refusing permission for an appeal to the Court of Appeal from a lower court." This accords with Section 40(6) of the

Constitutional Reform Act 2005 The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (c 4) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, relevant to UK constitutional law. It provides for a Supreme Court of the United Kingdom to take over the previous appellate jurisdiction of the Law Lo ...

References

United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1999 Legal aid Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning legal services {{UK-statute-stub