Legal Aid and Advice Act 1995

“aided person” means a person who is issued a Grant of Aid and, where such a person is a minor, includes the minor’s guardian;

“court” means any court, tribunal or adjudicator before which or before whom any proceedings mentioned in section 5(1) or (2) are heard;

“Director” means the Director of Legal Aid appointed under section 3 and includes a Deputy Director and an Assistant Director of Legal Aid;

“goods and services tax” means the goods and services tax levied under the Goods and Services Tax Act 1993;

“Grant of Aid” means a document issued under section 8 stating that legal aid is granted to a person (whether on a provisional basis or otherwise);

“guardian”, in relation to a minor, includes any person whom the Director considers might properly be appointed to be the litigation representative of the minor;

“judge”, in relation to any proceedings, means the person (however described) who decided those proceedings;

“legal advice” has the meaning given by section 20;

“legal aid” means legal aid granted under this Act;

“solicitor” means an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court.

The Minister may appoint a person to be the Director of Legal Aid and may also appoint such number of Deputy Directors and Assistant Directors of Legal Aid as the Minister may consider necessary for the proper carrying out of this Act.

No person may be appointed to be or to act temporarily as the Director, a Deputy Director or an Assistant Director of Legal Aid unless the person is a qualified person as defined in section 2 of the Legal Profession Act 1966 or is a solicitor.

The Director of Legal Aid may

Despite any other written law, for the purposes of this Act, the following persons have the right to appear and plead in all courts of justice in Singapore according to the law in force in those courts:

The Director must prepare and maintain panels of solicitors willing

The Director may appoint a solicitor to a panel mentioned in subsection (1) for a term of 3 years, or such longer or shorter period as the Director may specify in any particular case, beginning on such date as the Director may specify in the solicitor’s letter of appointment.

Any solicitor is entitled to have his or her name on the panels or any of them unless there is good reason for excluding or removing him or her on any of the grounds under subsection (4).

The Director may, at any time, exclude or remove any solicitor from any panel

Where a solicitor is aggrieved by any decision excluding or removing the solicitor (whether permanently or temporarily) from the panels or any of them, the solicitor may appeal against the decision to the General Division of the High Court and the General Division of the High Court (whose decision is final) may confirm or quash the decision appealed against or may substitute such decision as the General Division of the High Court thinks fit.

A solicitor has the duty to disclose to the Director any information or give any opinion which may enable the Director to perform the Director’s functions under this Act, including such information or opinion which may reasonably be taken into account by the Director or the board referred to in section 8 in determining whether to refuse or cancel legal aid to a person or an aided person, and the solicitor is not precluded from so doing by reason of any privilege arising out of the relationship between solicitor and client.

Subject to any regulations made under this Act, the Director must pay to a solicitor investigating and reporting, or giving an opinion, upon applications for the grant of legal aid or acting for persons receiving legal aid or giving legal advice under the provisions of this Act or Part 4 of the International Child Abduction Act 2010 such fees as may be agreed between the Director and the solicitor.

Subject to this Part, legal aid may be given to a citizen or permanent resident of Singapore in relation to any civil proceedings mentioned in Part 1 of the Schedule (not being any proceedings mentioned in Part 2 of the Schedule).

Despite subsection (1), the Director may authorise the giving of legal aid to a citizen or permanent resident of Singapore in relation to any proceedings mentioned in Part 2 of the Schedule, if the Director is satisfied that those proceedings are, or are likely to be, related to any civil proceedings mentioned in that subsection.

In deciding whether any proceedings mentioned in Part 2 of the Schedule are, or are likely to be, related to any civil proceedings mentioned in subsection (1), the Director may consider

The proceedings in connection with which legal aid may be given may be varied by regulations made under this Act and the regulations may describe the proceedings to be included or excluded by reference to the court, to the issues involved, to the capacity in which the person requiring legal aid is concerned, or otherwise.

Regulations made for the purpose of this section must not provide for giving legal aid in connection with any proceedings before any court before which persons have no right and are not normally allowed to be represented by a solicitor.

In this section, “permanent resident” means any person who is not subject to any restrictions as to that person’s period of residence in Singapore imposed under any written law relating to immigration for the time being in force in Singapore.

Any person who (whether in his or her own right or in a representative capacity) desires to be granted legal aid must make an application in that behalf to the Director.

An application for legal aid must be

Where the person who desires to be granted legal aid is a minor, the application must be made on behalf of the minor by the minor’s guardian.

Where any application is made on behalf of a minor then

In subsection (4), “relative” means

Where

Every aided person who gives a written consent under subsection (6) is deemed to have made a fresh application for legal aid in that person’s own right.

The Director may approve an application for legal aid, and issue a Grant of Aid to an applicant in connection with any proceedings, if

Pending the determination of an application under subsection (1), the Director may despite that subsection approve an application for legal aid, and issue a Grant of Aid on a provisional basis to an applicant in connection with any proceedings, if the Director is of the opinion that the applicant

The Director may refuse legal aid if it appears to the Director unreasonable that the applicant should receive it in the particular circumstances of the case.

Despite any provision of this Act (including any regulations made under this Act), the Minister may

For the purposes of subsection (4)(b), the Minister may authorise any person (including a panel of persons), with such qualifications and experience as the Minister considers appropriate in relation to assessing the financial circumstances of an applicant, to exercise the power under that subsection.

An authorisation under subsection (5)

Once an authorisation is made under subsection (5), the Minister must

The Director may, at any time and whether or not an application has been made for the purpose, cancel a Grant of Aid, and subject to subsection (2), the person to whom the Grant of Aid was issued ceases to be an aided person from the date of cancellation.

Where the Grant of Aid cancelled under subsection (1) has been filed with any court, the Director must file with the court a notification of the cancellation, and the person to whom the Grant of Aid was issued ceases to be an aided person from the date of filing of such notification.

Where a notification under subsection (2) is filed in a court in respect of any proceedings, the following apply unless the court (before which those proceedings are pending) orders otherwise:

The period mentioned in subsection (3)(a) may be reduced or extended by an order of the court.

The Director must take such steps as seem to the Director reasonable or necessary to inform the person to whom a Grant of Aid has been issued of the cancellation of any such Grant of Aid.

If, in relation to any proceedings to which a person who has made an application for legal aid or an aided person is a party, any other party makes application for legal aid, the provisions of this Act are to apply to both such parties.

The Director must not himself or herself act for either party referred to in subsection (1) but must assign a solicitor to be selected by the Director from the appropriate panel of solicitors maintained pursuant to section 4, to act for each aided person.

Where a Grant of Aid is issued, the Director may act for the aided person or may select a solicitor from the appropriate panel of solicitors maintained under section 4 and assign that solicitor to act for the aided person.

A fresh Grant of Aid must be filed with the court in which any proceedings are taken or are pending in any case where

Before taking any other step in the proceedings, the Director or the solicitor so assigned must file the Grant of Aid with the court in which the proceedings are to be taken or are pending and no fee is to be charged in respect of the filing of the Grant of Aid.

Where any Grant of Aid is so filed, the aided person

Subject to sections 13 and 22A, no person who, pursuant to any reference under this Act, makes any investigation or report or gives any opinion or who pursuant to any assignment under this Act conducts any proceedings may take or agree to take or seek from an aided person any fee, profit or reward (pecuniary or otherwise) in respect of the making of such investigation or report, the giving of such opinion, or the conduct of such proceedings.

To avoid doubt, the Director may take proceedings

The Director may require any applicant for legal aid or any person to whom a Grant of Aid is issued to deposit with the Director such amounts at such times as the Director may think fit to be used in or towards meeting out‑of‑pocket expenses (not including office expenses) incurred in connection with the application or with any proceedings to which the application or the Grant of Aid relates.

Any amount deposited under subsection (1) must be used only to pay

After the payments referred to in subsection (2)(a) and (b) have been made, the balance of the amount deposited under subsection (1) (if any) must be refunded to the applicant or the aided person, as the case may be.

In any case where the Director is satisfied that the making of a deposit under subsection (1) would occasion hardship, the Director may, out of any funds in the Director’s control which are available for the purpose, from time to time, meet any out‑of‑pocket expenses (not including office expenses) or make such advances to meet such out‑of‑pocket expenses as the Director may consider necessary.

Any advance so made must be used only for payment of such out‑of‑pocket expenses and any part of such amount not so expended must be refunded to the Director.

Where the Director has made any advance out of the funds in the Director’s control to meet out‑of‑pocket expenses under subsection (4), the Director may require the applicant or the aided person (as the case may be) in respect of whom those expenses are incurred to repay to the Director any amount expended or advanced in any manner that the Director thinks fit.

Where it appears to a court that any of the circumstances mentioned in subsection (3) exists in relation to an aided person, the court may order the aided person to pay the costs of all or any of the following persons:

In subsection (1), a reference to an “aided person” includes, in any case where the Grant of Aid has been cancelled before the making of the order, the person who immediately before the cancellation was the aided person.

For the purposes of subsection (1), the circumstances are as follows:

Where an order is made under subsection (1), the costs must be taxed as if the party ordered to pay costs were not an aided person.

The costs so ordered to be paid must, unless otherwise directed by the order, include

Where the costs of the Director or the solicitor who acted for the aided person ordered to be paid under subsection (1) include any of the fees, charges or sums referred to in subsection (5), then if any amount is recovered by the Director in respect of such costs, the same must be applied in the first instance in or towards the satisfaction of such fees, charges or sums.

An aided person must not without the leave of the Director discharge any solicitor assigned to act for the aided person under this Act.

Any solicitor assigned to act for an aided person must not discontinue the solicitor’s aid without the leave of the Director; except that any solicitor may be represented by any other solicitor.

Where an aided person is entitled to costs in any proceedings to which the aided person is a party

Subsection (1) does not apply to any costs against another aided person.

Where any moneys are recovered by an aided person (whether in proceedings or by virtue of a settlement or compromise), the aided person is liable to pay to the Director so much of the moneys so recovered as is recovered in respect of costs.

For the purposes of subsection (3), the moneys recovered in respect of costs are deemed to be so much of the total amount so recovered as exceeds the amount (if any) recoverable by the aided person otherwise than as costs.

Without limiting subsections (1), (2), (3) and (4), “costs” includes

Where the costs recovered by the Director under this section include any of the fees, charges or sums referred to in subsection (5)(b) and (c), such costs must be applied, in the first instance, in and towards satisfaction of such fees, charges or sums.

Where proceedings have been commenced and any party makes an application for legal aid, the Director must, as soon as practicable after the application is made, notify the other party or each of the other parties, and file with the court in which the proceedings are pending, a notification of the making of the application; and no fee is to be payable in respect of the filing of the notification.

Where a notification under subsection (1) is filed in respect of any proceedings, the following apply unless the court (before which those proceedings are pending) orders otherwise:

Despite subsection (2), the filing of the notification under subsection (1) does not prevent any of the following:

The period mentioned in subsection (2)(a) may be reduced or extended by an order of the court.

Where

Despite subsection (1), the Director may consider a fresh application for legal aid that is made outside the prescribed time mentioned in that subsection, if

Subsection (1) does not apply to an appeal in respect of any interlocutory matter in any proceedings to which a Grant of Aid relates.

Subject to this Part, legal advice is available to persons resident and present in Singapore.

Any legal advice under subsection (1) may consist of any of the following:

Provision may be made by regulations made under this Act for further defining or restricting the matters for which legal advice may be given and for regulating all matters relating to fees, charges and costs in relation to the giving of legal advice.

A person seeking legal advice must apply to the Director, and must satisfy the Director that the person cannot afford to obtain the legal advice in the ordinary way.

Where a person who desires to be given legal advice is a minor, the application must be made on behalf of the minor by the minor’s guardian.

The like privileges and rights as those which arise from the relationship of client and solicitor acting in the solicitor’s professional employment are to arise from the following relationships:

Despite anything in subsection (1), the privileges mentioned in that subsection are not to arise in relation to any information tendered to the Director concerning the property or income of the applicant for a Grant of Aid.

Unless this Act or any regulations made under this Act otherwise provide, the rights conferred by this Act on a person receiving legal aid or advice (as the case may be) are not to affect the rights or liabilities of other parties to the proceedings or the principles on which the discretion of any court is normally exercised.

The Director may require a person to make one or more contributions, in a lump sum or by instalments, in respect of any matter for which an application for legal aid or legal advice has been made by that person.

Where an application mentioned in subsection (1) is made on behalf of a minor by the minor’s guardian, a reference in subsection (1) to a person is a reference to

Unless the regulations made under this Act otherwise provide, any sum remaining unpaid on account of a person’s contribution, in respect of any matter for which legal aid has been granted, is a first charge on any property that is recovered or preserved for that person in the proceedings connected to the matter, in favour of any fund established under this Act.

For the purposes of subsection (3), a reference to any property recovered or preserved for a person in any proceedings includes a reference to both of the following:

The charge under subsection (3) does not prevent a court from allowing any damages or costs mentioned in subsection (4)(b) that are recovered by a person to be set off against any damages or costs awarded against that person, in any case where a solicitor’s lien for costs would not prevent the court from allowing that set off.

The Director may, in the Director’s discretion, reduce any contribution, or waive or refund the whole or any part of any contribution, that a person is required to pay under subsection (1).

The Minister may make regulations for prescribing all matters that this Act requires or permits to be prescribed, or that are necessary or expedient for carrying out or giving effect to this Act.

Without limiting subsection (1), the regulations may

The regulations may apply generally to all legal matters, whether relating to proceedings in court or otherwise, or may apply to any specified class of matters or proceedings or to all matters or proceedings other than matters or proceedings of a specified class.

Any fund established under this Act to meet the costs, fees, disbursements or expenses in connection with legal aid or advice under this Act may be applied for the purposes of legal aid or advice under the International Child Abduction Act 2010.

The regulations may impose a penalty not exceeding $2,000 for any breach of the regulations.

The powers conferred by this section do not extend to any matter for which Rules of Court or Family Justice Rules may be made under section 19.

All regulations made under this Act must be presented to Parliament as soon as possible after publication in the Gazette.