Join our External Panel

To do any civil legal aid work, you'll need to be enrolled as a solicitor in the State, have adequate professional indemnity and meet tax clearance requirements.

Before you can take on legally aided clients you'll need to join one or more of our solicitors panels. Each panel has terms and conditions which you must accept prior to signing up. You should fill out an application form (available by phoning 066 947 1000 or emailing ppunit@legalaidboard.ie) and return it to the Board. Not all of our panels are open to new entrants all the time, but the District Court family law panel, which is our busiest, is always open to new entrants. Some panels require you to attend a training programme or otherwise satisfy us that you have experience in the area of law that you want to work to do legal aid work in. There may other requirements specific to particular panels.

Membership of any panel is in the name of the individual solicitor and not the firm. Firms in which more than one solicitor intends to join a panel should send separate application forms in respect of each solicitor, but they can be sent together under the same cover. While each panel is a national one, solicitors are given the opportunity when completing the application form to indicate the counties where they are willing to provide representation.

Completed applications to join any of the Board's panels should be sent to:

Private Practitioner Services,
Legal Aid Board, Quay Street,
Cahirciveen,
Co. Kerry V23 RD36
(DX 166 004 CAHIRCIVEEN)
Email ppunit@legalaidboard.ie

District Court Family Law Panel

You will need to be enrolled as a solicitor in the State, have adequate professional indemnity insurance to the Board's satisfaction (currently €1.5m) and meet tax clearance requirements. You will need to apply in writing, on the application form, and give a signed undertaking to comply with the Terms and Conditions of membership and the provisions of the law regarding civil legal aid.

Application Form

Terms and Conditions

Applicants apply at Law Centres for legal aid and advice. The application will be considered by the Board and if granted the applicant will be given a legal aid certificate. All persons granted legal aid at the Law Centre at Dolphin House are normally referred to the panel. At other Law Centres it is the Law Centre's decision in accordance with management guidance as to who is referred to the panel. There is no entitlement to be referred but we will take the wishes of the applicant into account. In Dublin it is normally a requirement that proceedings already have issued before we will make a referral and the Family Law Office at Dolphin House will assist parties with this.

A person who is referred to the Panel will be given a copy of an extract from the Panel with the names of the solicitors providing services in the county in which the court proceedings are taking place. Either the Board or the legally aided person then notifies the solicitor and provides them with the following documents:

the legal aid certificate which includes the legally aided person’s name, the nature of the proceedings authorised and the steps authorised on foot of those proceedings, in terms of the expenditure on witnesses that may be incurred; and
a Claim Form on which the legal aid certificate number should be entered.

The certificate is the solicitor’s authority to provide legal aid to the client under the Civil Legal Aid Act 1995. A copy of the certificate should be retained by the solicitor / firm on the client file. Another copy of the certificate should be attached to the claim form for payment of the fee and any outlay, when the case is concluded. Legal services cannot be provided without a valid legal aid certificate.

Separation and Divorce in the Circuit Court

Application Form

Terms and Conditions

Child Care Solicitors Panel

You must be enrolled as a solicitor in the State and meet the other requirements in our terms and conditions for membership of the panel. You will be required to demonstrate the necessary experience in the area of child care law. Prior service on the Child Care Pilot Panel may meet the requirement for necessary experience.

Application Form

Terms and Conditions

International Protection Solicitors Panel

Application Form

Terms and Conditions

Abhaile Solicitors Panel

You will need to be enrolled as a solicitor in the State with a current practising certificate, have adequate levels of professional indemnity insurance cover, and be in a position to show compliance with tax clearance arrangements and attend trainign that we organise. You must also demonstrate to the our satisfaction that you have either:

- recent experience in providing legal services in home repossession cases, which must include experience in advocacy before the Circuit Court in such cases; or
- experience in providing legal services in relation to personal insolvency arrangements.

Application Form

Terms and Conditions

Inquests Panel

Section 30(3)(a) of the Civil Legal Aid Act 1995 (“the Act”) provides that the Legal Aid Board (“the Board”) may establish and maintain a panel of solicitors who are willing to provide legal aid and advice to persons who are in receipt of legal services.

The Board has now decided to establish and maintain a panel of solicitors who are willing to provide services to persons who have been granted a legal aid certificate by the Board for the purpose of advice and representation in relation to any of the 8 categories of cases set out in Section 60 (5) of the Coroners Act 1962 (inserted by Section 24(b) of the Courts and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2013)

The panel shall be known as the Private Practitioner Coroners Inquest Panel (“the Panel”).

Application Form

Mental Health Tribunals

If you have a query about providing legal aid at mental health tribunals, contact the Mental Health Commission.

For other queries in relation to joining our external panels you can contact our Private Practitioner Unit on 066 947 1000 or email them at ppunit@legalaidboard.ie.