CLS news

Increase in rates and payment

Civil legal aid service providers will benefit from some increases in fees and hourly rates. These enhanced rates will apply to cases started from 1 July 2008.

More information is under Pay rates and schemes. The full 2007 and 2008 Contract Payment Annexes are on our Unified Contract pages.

Historic unrecouped payments

We’ve agreed a new policy for 'historic cases' which are:

• no activity on the certificate including any payment since March 2002
• total payment less than £20 000
• no debit note or debit to a BACs statement sent by the LSC before 1 April 2008 (or agreement to pay made).

Providers can now opt to accept the payment on account as a final bill instead of providing evidence of the costs. However if they want to bill one such case, they have to be able to justify their costs on all cases. 

Our specialist unrecouped payment on account (UPOA) team in our Leeds office is working on this new procedure.

Further detail can be found in appendix 6 of the deed of settlement.

Remainder work

We’ve agreed to allow providers who terminate their contract on a no fault basis (or fail to apply for a new one) to continue remainder work for up to two years with the client’s consent.

Detailed rules are set out in a new remainder work protocol in appendix 2 of the deed of settlement.

Standard monthly payments

We’ve agreed a reconciliation protocol. Benefits include:

• more stability
• less intervention
• advance notice of changes to payments.

Further detail can be found at appendix 3 of the deed of settlement. We’re currently putting together guidance and worked examples to aid further understanding of this process.

Community Legal Advice Centres and Networks

We’ll continue to create centres and networks and joint-commission social welfare law services with other funders to encourage the delivery of integrated, client-focused services.

We’ve published a list of procurement areas where discussions may lead to the establishment of a Community Legal Advice Centre or Network prior to April 2010.

Review of quality assurance methods

We’ve also set up a group to look at peer review and other quality assurance processes and procedures.

The group has representatives from:

• The Law Society
• Ministry of Justice
• Solicitors’ Regulation Authority
• Advice Services Alliance
• Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
• Resolution.

Further information on the work of this group and minutes of group meetings is on the CLS > Quality and performance pages of our website.

Contract compliance audits

Another group, including the National Audit Office, is looking at the operation of contract compliance audits. As well as looking at the process they’ll carry out a review of our guidance and the training and support we give providers. 

Consultative group

We’ve established a civil contracts consultative group to review the impact of current fee schemes and develop future procurement policy. The group comprises representatives from:

• The Law Society
• Legal Aid Practitioners Group
• Advice Services Alliance
• the Housing Law Practitioners’ Association
• Association of Lawyers for Children
• Mental Health Lawyers Association
• Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association
• Resolution
• the Ministry of Justice.

The group are next due to meet during Jul 08 and will focus on reviewing new matter start data. Further information on the work programme for this group is in appendix 9 of the deed of settlement.