Even on legal aid attending your court case can be expensive. With the level of historic allegations attending your trial can often mean travelling miles from home, having to pay for accommodation. Even if the trial is just but a few days this can add up to a few hundred pounds very quickly. If it’s one of the longer trials of 2 or 3 weeks you are very quickly looking at a lot of money. It is advisable from the time your case arrives at the court you start to keep records and receipts of your expenses. When you are acquitted of all your charges many of these (in line with the rules) can be claimed back from central funds. Be sure to tell your barrister that when the not guilty verdict is returned you wish them to apply for a defendants cost order (DCO). Often throughout the allegation and processes funds become very difficult. Many people loose income. Whilst this maybe the furthest thing from your mind ensuring you apply and receive your costs can be a big help to getting your finances back in order post trial. Some of the things you can claim are as follows:
• Travel to / from court (bus/train/air/mileage)
• Parking• Subsistence (meals)
• Accomodation
If you are funding your legal case privately the DCO can also cover recovering some of those legal fees that you have also spent. However, it is unlikely that you will recover your full legal fees. To recover legal costs you must have applied for and been refused legal aid. If you were eligible for legal aid and then chose to fund your case privately you will not be eligible to recover any legal fees either.