Form N258A: Legal Aid Detailed Assessment Guide

At a glance

• What it does: Form N258A commences detailed assessment proceedings where the receiving party's costs are payable by the Legal Aid Agency, under rule 47.18 of the Civil Procedure Rules.
• Who administers legal aid now: the Legal Aid Agency, an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice, since 1 April 2013 — the Legal Services Commission named in the form's legacy title was abolished on that date.
• Time limit: 3 months from the date the right to detailed assessment arose (rule 47.18(2); Practice Direction 47, paragraph 17.1). There is no automatic extension.
• Hearing: not automatic. The court provisionally assesses the bill on paper unless the solicitor certifies the client wants to attend, or the court decides a hearing is necessary.
• Where it's filed: the district registry or County Court hearing centre that dealt with the case, or the Senior Courts Costs Office (SCCO) for Court of Appeal cases and cases with no other appropriate office (Practice Direction 47, paragraph 4.1).
• The bundle: the bill of costs, the order giving the right to assessment, copies of relevant court orders, fee notes and disbursement evidence, and every relevant legal aid/LSC/LAA certificate (Practice Direction 47, paragraph 17.2).
• Appeals: a decision by an authorised court officer can be appealed to a costs judge or district judge within 21 days, without needing permission (rules 47.21–47.24).

What Form N258A is for

Form N258A is the request form used to start a detailed assessment of costs in a case where the paying party is, in substance, the Legal Aid Agency rather than a private opponent. Detailed assessment is the formal court process for checking whether the costs claimed by a solicitor are reasonable and properly incurred, item by item — it applies where costs cannot simply be agreed between the parties or summarily assessed by the judge at the end of a hearing.

The legal basis is rule 47.18 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998, which sits alongside the general detailed assessment rules in rule 47.6 (commencement) and rule 47.7 (time limits for inter-partes costs). Rule 47.18 is the dedicated route for costs "payable out of the Community Legal Services Fund or by the Lord Chancellor under Part 1 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012" — in plain terms, costs the state is funding through legal aid. Where the receiving party's costs are instead payable by an opposing party under a normal costs order, the correct form is Form N258, not N258A.

Legal Services Commission to Legal Aid Agency: getting the terminology right

Form N258A's official title still carries the phrase "Legal Services Commission" in places, which causes genuine confusion. Here is the accurate current position.

The Legal Services Commission (LSC) was established under the Access to Justice Act 1999 to run the Community Legal Service and the Criminal Defence Service. Its legal aid functions were abolished with effect from 1 April 2013, when the relevant provisions of the Access to Justice Act 1999 were repealed by section 151(1) and Schedule 5, paragraph 51(a) of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO).

From that date, civil legal aid is provided under Part 1 of LASPO. The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) — an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice — replaced the LSC's administrative role, and individual funding decisions are made by the Director of Legal Aid Casework, a civil servant designated under section 4 of LASPO, who must act independently of ministers in individual cases.

This matters for Form N258A in three practical ways:

1. The form itself has already moved on. The current edition of Form N258A (edition 04/13, dated the very month of the changeover) is titled "Request for detailed assessment (Legal aid/ Legal Aid Agency only)" — not "Legal Services Commission." GOV.UK's own publication page is similarly titled "Request a detailed assessment – legal aid and Legal Aid Agency: Form N258A," even though the page's web address still carries the older wording as a legacy slug.
2. The rule was amended to match. Rule 47.18 was itself amended with effect from 1 April 2013 (by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Consequential, Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2013) to add "or by the Lord Chancellor under Part 1 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012" alongside the older Community Legal Service Fund wording — because the rule still needs to cover assessments of costs incurred under both the old and new regimes.
3. A single bill can straddle both regimes. Where a case ran on both sides of 1 April 2013, or where funding was granted, then ceased, or where different legal representatives acted at different times, Practice Direction 47, paragraph 5.8(4) requires the bill of costs to be divided into separate parts distinguishing costs claimed before, during, and after legal aid or LSC funding was in place. This is why the bundle (below) still asks for "legal aid certificates, LSC certificates" and Director of Legal Aid Casework determination certificates together — not because the LSC still exists, but because older certificates it issued remain valid and relevant to the assessment of historic work.

The 3-month time limit

A request for detailed assessment under rule 47.18 must be filed within 3 months after the date when the right to detailed assessment arose — this is set out in rule 47.18(2) and confirmed in Practice Direction 47, paragraph 17.1. In most cases, that date is the date of the judgment or order that gave the right to costs.

This mirrors the general 3-month period that applies to inter-partes detailed assessment under rule 47.7, but it runs under a separate rule specific to legal-aid-funded costs. There is no automatic extension for missing the deadline, and rule 47.8(5) applies the general sanction-for-delay provisions in rule 47.8 to legal-aid cases "as if the receiving party were the solicitor to whom the costs are payable and the paying party were the Lord Chancellor" — meaning a late request can, in principle, expose the solicitor to the same costs and interest sanctions that apply in an ordinary inter-partes assessment. Diarise the deadline as soon as the final costs order is made.

Where to file the request

Under Practice Direction 47, paragraph 4.1, the "appropriate office" for a detailed assessment request is:

• the district registry or County Court hearing centre that was dealing with the case when the judgment or order was made (or to which the case was later transferred); or
• in Court of Appeal cases, and in any other case with no other appropriate office, the Senior Courts Costs Office (SCCO) in London.

Certain London County Court hearing centres have a special rule: for those centres, the request must be filed at the SCCO, even though the case itself was heard locally (Practice Direction 47, paragraph 4.2). Cases can also be transferred to the SCCO where the size of the bill, the difficulty of the issues, or the likely length of the hearing makes that appropriate (paragraph 4.3).

Bills where the base costs (excluding VAT) do not exceed £35,000 (senior executive officer level) or £110,000 (principal officer level) may be assessed by an authorised court officer rather than a costs judge or district judge (Practice Direction 47, paragraph 3.1) — this affects who deals with the assessment, and which appeal route applies afterwards (see below).

What must go in the N258A bundle

Practice Direction 47, paragraph 17.2 sets out exactly what must accompany Form N258A. The request must be filed together with:

1. A copy of the bill of costs.
2. The document giving the right to detailed assessment — usually the court order or judgment.
3. Copies of all orders made by the court relating to the costs being assessed.
4. Copies of fee notes of counsel and any expert in respect of fees claimed in the bill.
5. Written evidence for any other disbursement claimed that exceeds £500.
6. All relevant legal aid certificates, LSC certificates, and Director of Legal Aid Casework determination certificates, together with any amendment certificates, authorities, and certificates of discharge, revocation or withdrawal.
7. A signed statement from the legal representative giving their name, address for service, reference, phone number and email address — and, where the assisted person has a financial interest in the assessment and wishes to attend, that person's postal address, so the court knows where to send notice of any hearing.

The bill of costs itself must also be internally divided where legal aid funding started, changed, or ended partway through the case, or where more than one legal representative acted (Practice Direction 47, paragraph 5.8). Getting this division wrong is one of the more common reasons a costs officer queries a bill.

Provisional assessment or a hearing?

Rule 47.18 sets out a specific procedure once the request is filed:

• If the solicitor certifies that the assisted person or LAA-funded client wishes to attend a hearing, the court fixes a date for an assessment hearing (rule 47.18(4)).
• If no such certification is given, the court provisionally assesses the bill on paper, without the solicitor attending, unless it considers a hearing is necessary (rule 47.18(5)).
• After a provisional assessment, the court returns the bill to the solicitor with the proposed figures. If the solicitor is unhappy with the outcome, they have 14 days from receiving the provisionally assessed bill to tell the court they want a hearing after all (rule 47.18(6)–(7)).

In practice, most straightforward legal aid bills are dealt with on paper. A hearing becomes more likely where the bill is substantial, where the costs officer raises significant queries, or where the client has a genuine financial interest in the outcome and wants to be heard.

Worked example: a straightforward N258A request

Priya, a fictional solicitor, acted for a legally aided client in a personal injury claim that concluded with a costs order in the client's favour. The order was dated 10 March. Priya has three months — until 10 June — to file Form N258A.

She prepares the bill of costs, dividing it to distinguish costs incurred before and after the legal aid certificate was granted, as required by Practice Direction 47, paragraph 5.8(4). She assembles the bundle: the costs order, copies of interim orders relating to costs, counsel's fee notes, the legal aid certificate and its amendment certificates, and her signed statement giving her contact details. Her client has no ongoing financial interest in the specific figures allowed (the statutory charge does not apply here), so Priya does not certify that a hearing is wanted.

She files the request at the County Court hearing centre that dealt with the claim, within the 3-month window. The costs officer provisionally assesses the bill on paper and returns it with the proposed figures. Priya reviews them, is satisfied they are reasonable, and does not request a hearing within the 14-day window — so the provisional assessment becomes final and a costs certificate is issued.

After the assessment

Once the detailed assessment is complete, the court issues a costs certificate confirming the amount allowed — this may be an interim certificate during the process or a final certificate once assessment is concluded. A costs certificate can be enforced as if it were a court judgment for the payment of money, although enforcement proceedings for interim or final costs certificates cannot be issued in the Costs Office itself.

If a party disagrees with the outcome, the appeal route depends on who carried out the assessment. Where an authorised court officer made the decision, any party may appeal to a costs judge or district judge under rules 47.21 to 47.24 — no permission to appeal is required, the appeal notice must be filed within 21 days of the decision, and the appeal takes the form of a full re-hearing. Where a costs judge or district judge carried out the assessment personally, any challenge instead follows the general civil appeals route.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Using Form N258 instead of N258A (or vice versa) — check whether the costs are payable by an opposing party (N258, rule 47.6) or by the Legal Aid Agency (N258A, rule 47.18) before filing.
• Missing the 3-month deadline. Diarise it from the date of the order, not from when the bill is finished being drafted.
• Filing an undivided bill where legal aid funding started, changed, or ceased partway through the case — Practice Direction 47, paragraph 5.8(4) requires separate parts.
• Leaving out a certificate. Every relevant legal aid, LSC, or Director of Legal Aid Casework certificate — including amendment and discharge certificates — should be in the bundle, not just the original grant.
• Filing at the wrong office — check whether the case falls under the general "appropriate office" rule or the special London hearing-centre rule that requires filing at the SCCO instead.
• Missing the 14-day window to request a hearing after a provisional assessment, if the proposed figures are being challenged.

Step by step: completing and lodging Form N258A

1. Confirm the funding route. Check that the costs are payable by the Legal Aid Agency under a legal aid certificate or LASPO civil legal services arrangement, not by an opposing party. If costs are payable by another party, use Form N258 instead.
2. Prepare the bill of costs, divided into parts as required by Practice Direction 47, paragraph 5.8 where funding started, changed, or ended during the case, or where more than one legal representative acted.
3. Assemble the bundle: the order giving the right to assessment, copies of relevant court orders, counsel's and experts' fee notes, evidence for disbursements over £500, every relevant legal aid/LSC/LAA certificate, and the signed solicitor's statement.
4. Complete Form N258A, giving the court name, claim number, and the parties, and certify whether the client wishes to attend a hearing.
5. File the request at the appropriate office — the district registry or County Court hearing centre that dealt with the case, or the SCCO where that applies — within 3 months of the date the right to detailed assessment arose. Check current court fees on GOV.UK, as these are reviewed periodically.
6. Respond to the provisional assessment or attend the hearing. If assessed on paper and you disagree with the outcome, request a hearing within 14 days. Once assessment is complete, the costs certificate supports the claim for payment under the LAA's funding arrangements.

This guide provides general information about Form N258A and the detailed assessment of legally aided costs in England and Wales. It is not legal advice and is not a substitute for advice tailored to your specific circumstances. The law described was accurate as at August 2026 and is subject to change — always check GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk for the most current position.

Last reviewed: August 2026 by a non-practising solicitor · Next review due: August 2027 or on legislative change.