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Judicial Review: Advisers' Checklist
Individuals can bring judicial review cases if they have a genuine
interest in the issues. So, for example, a person living in Birmingham
could challenge a decision by Birmingham City Council to cut services;
whereas a person living in London and with no connection to Birmingham
could not.
However, charities, campaign groups and not-for-profit organisations
can bring judicial review cases even if they will not be directly
affected, provided that the groups they work with or the issues they
promote are affected.
Public funding (legal aid) is available to individuals on low incomes
and can be used to fund most judicial review cases.
Where a significant number of people are affected by a decision or
policy but do not have the money to bring a case themselves, it is
generally best to find one or two people who are eligible for legal
aid so they can bring a ‘Test Case’ using legal aid funding.
Test cases are cases which have the potential to benefit not just
the person bringing the case, but lots of other people who are in
a similar position.
Where there is no individual eligible for legal aid, or where a charity,
campaign group or not-for-profit organisation is considering a challenge
then the costs of bringing a judicial review case may be significant,
especially as the loser usually has to pay the winner’s costs.
However there are new ways of limiting these costs including Protective
Costs Orders. These can be used in public interest cases to protect
the people bringing the judicial review case from having to pay the
opponent’s legal costs if the case fails.
We are always happy to provide initial, free advice to charities,
campaign groups and not-for-profit organisations wanting to weigh
up the pros and cons of bringing a claim and who want guidance about
funding and the likely costs involved. We may also agree to carry
out free follow-up work in exceptional cases. For more information
about funding cases, please see the Funding
your case page. Alternatively, please take a look at our other public law resources.
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