Access to Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2003

Selection of representative

30.—(1) An individual who has been granted a right to representation in accordance with Articles 25 to 29 may, subject to Article 35, select any representative or representatives willing to act for him; and, where he does so, the Commission is to comply with the duty imposed by Article 24 by funding representation by the selected representative or representatives.

(2) Regulations may provide that in prescribed circumstances—

(a) the right conferred by paragraph (1) is not to apply in cases of prescribed descriptions,

(b) an individual who has been provided with advice or assistance funded by the Commission under Article 23 by a person whom he chose to provide it for him is to be taken to have selected that person as his representative pursuant to that right,

(c) that right is not to include a right to select a representative of a prescribed description,

(d) that right is to select only a registered person within the meaning of Article 36, or only a representative of a prescribed description,

(e) that right is to select not more than a prescribed number of representatives to act at any one time,

(f) that right is not to include a right to select a representative in place of a representative previously selected.

(3) Regulations under paragraph (2)(b) may prescribe circumstances in which an individual is to be taken to have chosen a person to provide advice or assistance for him.

(4) Regulations under paragraph (2) may not provide that only a person employed by the Commission, or by a body established and maintained by the Commission, may be selected.

(5) Regulations may provide that in prescribed circumstances the Commission is not required to fund, or to continue to fund, representation for an individual by a particular representative (but such provision shall not prejudice any right of the individual to select another representative).

(6) The circumstances which may be prescribed by regulations under paragraph (2) or (5) include that a determination has been made by a prescribed body or person.

(7) A representative who has been selected to act for an individual under this paragraph may select another person to act for that individual, as the agent of the representative, if that other person is of such a description that nothing in Article 35 would prohibit the individual selecting him as his representative.