Legal Aid South Africa Act, 2014 (Act No. 39 of 2014)Regulations25. Matters relating to the Mental Health Care Act, 2002 |
| (1) | Legal aid is available to mental health care users and the means test is applied when the legal aid applicant is a mental health care user as contemplated in section 15 of the Mental Health Care Act, 2002 (Act No. 17 of 2002), subject to the provisions of subregulation (2). |
| (2) | If— |
| (a) | the mental health care user is not assisted by his or her parent, guardian, spouse, life partner or child, the means of the mental health care user must be taken into consideration; |
| (b) | the mental health care user is assisted by his or her parent or guardian, spouse, life partner or child, the means of that parent, guardian, spouse, life partner or child must be taken into consideration; or |
| (c) | the mental health care user is assisted by his or her parent, guardian, spouse, life partner or child who exceeds the means test and can afford to provide legal representation for the mental health care user, yet fails, refuses or neglects to do so, legal aid must be provided to that mental health care user: Provided that Legal Aid South Africa may institute proceedings against that parent, guardian, spouse, life partner or child to recover the cost of the legal aid. |