As from 1st April 2000 the technical name "legal aid" was replaced by "Legal Help" (for advice, replacing the previous "green form" scheme) or "Help at Court" (for representation in court).

Solicitors can give limited free advice on any subject, including employment law, under "Legal Help" to those with low disposable income and savings/capital. Apart from that, the basic position is that legal aid is not available for employment tribunal cases. It is however available for appeals from employment tribunals to the Employment Appeals Tribunal, to the Court of Appeal and to the House of Lords. It should also be noted that legal aid may be available in respect of an employment contract claim which is pursued through the courts rather than at an employment tribunal.

Help at Court pays for a solicitor to speak on behalf of a legally aided client at certain court hearings, without formally acting in the whole proceedings. Full scale "Legal Representation", usually starting with more limited "investigative help", is available in some cases.

All these services are administered by the Legal Services Commission which replaced the Legal Aid Board on 1st April 2000. The generic title is now "Community Legal Service", which runs a useful CLS Direct (formerly "JustAsk") web-site.

Provision of financial help is means tested and is available only to those with modest income and/or capital. Current details are in a LSC Means Assessment Guide (CLSMeans1) available from the Legal Services Commission which uses a set of regularly updated rules called the LSC Funding Code to decide which individual cases can be funded (the LSC Funding Code is prepared under Access to Justice Act 1999 s.8 and replaces the previous "merits test" for civil legal aid). There is a useful legal aid eligibility calculator on the LSC website.

In an effort to save public money, the Legal Services Commission encourages the use of Conditional Fee arrangements under which lawyers' fees in almost all proceedings in the civil courts, save for certain family proceedings, can in effect be on a "no win, no fee" basis (see eg the various orders at the head of this note, in particular the Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2000, SI 2000/823 which provides for continuation of the basic conditional fees arrangements in operation since 1998). Conditional Fee arrangements are often backed up with "After the Event" (ATE) insurance which is taken out after the individual concerned has decided to pursue a claim and which covers the risk of incurring costs relating to the case in the event of the claim being unsuccessful.

See also notes on Mediation and ADR and Funding and legal aid/Methods of funding .