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Legal guidance and updates
On this page:
- How to use this page
- Family drug and alcohol court pilot
- Consultation on proposed changes to family guidance
- Statement from MoJ re: court fees exemptions
- FGF Scheme - amendments to support the Public Law Outline
- Standard Wordings
- Family Decision Making Guidance
- Pre-proceedings Legal Advice - Q & A
- Care Proceedings: local initiatives
- Changes to family remuneration for private law proceedings
How to use this page
This page provides legal guidance updates relevant to contracted Family providers. These will be posted as and when needed rather than according to a set timetable.
If you are a member of the public needing legal advice, please visit our Community Legal Service Direct website where you can:
- find a local solicitor
- check whether you’re financially eligible for legal aid
- read information leaflets.
Any queries relating to the information in this page should be directed to the Family team.
Family drug and alcohol court pilot - Inner London Family Proceedings Court
Guidance from the Legal Services Commission regarding identification of FDAC cases and remuneration of legal representatives.
The LSC has been working with the court at Wells Street to support the ongoing care proceedings pilot there and guidance has been agreed with the judiciary as well as the FDAC Legal Planning Group. The Group is attended by solicitor representatives as well as representatives of the local authorities involved in the pilot (Camden, Islington and Westminster).
So that pilot cases can be identified by the LSC and dealt with as quickly as possible, as well as the impacts on funding monitored, practitioners are asked to identify cases in the pilot by marking the standard LSC application forms.
Guidance is also given around the attendance of legal representatives at review hearings attended by the client(s). This indicates that attendances will be remunerated where it is reasonable to anticipate in advance of the particular hearing that the representative will be required to provide advocacy services for the funded client(s) at the hearing.
The full guidance is available in the documents panel on the right.
Consultation on proposed changes to family guidance
Consultation - Family cases - non-allowable disbursements and Funding Code guidanceWe have consulted on changes to the list of non-allowable disbursements in family cases at:
- Volume 3, Part C Legal Services Commission
- The related guidance on authorities at Volume 1, Part D
- And on assessments as to the suitability of mediation in Volume 3, Part C
The proposed changes anticipate the implementation of the Children and Adoption Act 2006 in the autumn. The consultation closed on 27 October 2008. The finalised changes will be made available on the LSC website soon.
The consultation can be viewed here.
Family Graduated Fee Scheme - amendments to support the Public Law Outline
The Family Graduated Fee Scheme for barristers has been amended to support the introduction of the Public Law Outline on 1 April 2008.
A copy of the relevant amendment order - The Community Legal Service (Funding) (Counsel in Family Proceedings) (Amendment) Order 2008 can be found on the LSC website here together with a note detailing the changes made.
Statement from MoJ re: court fees exemptions
There were amendments to the rules in relation to exemptions from court fees on 1 October.
We've received queries from solicitors providing advice and assistance under Legal Help, querying the documents the court needs to see to support applications for fee concessions.
The MoJ has confirmed its position. See Documents for full details.
Standard Wordings
New Standard wordings are available to support the new fee schemes for:- applications for care and supervision orders which fall within the public law fee scheme
- private law cases where Family Help (Higher) replaces General family Help.
These wordings are under Documents. They will be published in the next update to the Legal Services Commission Manual.
Family Decision Making Guidance
We have amended t
Pre-proceedings Legal Advice - Q & A
The non means tested availability of advice will support the Public Law Outline (PLO) initiative which is being taken forward by the President of the Family Division.
Please see the Documents panel for the Q&A. See the item below and the Documents panel for information on the PLO.
An item on General Family Help in public law proceedings will be published in Focus 54 (August 2007).
Sir Mark Potter, the President of the Family Division of the judiciary has announced a number of initiatives. These relate to changes in the Judicial Case Management Protocol for public law Children Act cases.
Please see Documents for:
-
a letter sent by the Department for Education and Skills to local authorities to introduce the initiative areas including the proposed structure of proceedings
- an updated question and answers document.
An item on the Public Law Outline was published in Focus 54 (August 2007).
Any funding queries relating to the Public Law Outline can be addressed to the LSC's Family team.
Changes to family remuneration for private law proceedings
Following the DCA/LSC paper Legal Aid Reform: the Way Ahead the Legal Aid in Family Proceedings (Remuneration) (Amendment) Regulations 2007 will harmonise solicitor remuneration rates for private law family cases as between the county court and the Magistrates’/Family Proceedings Court.
These Regulations will apply to all work carried out after 2 April 2007 where funding was granted after that date.
Please see Documents for a:
- paper setting out the main changes together with the amended rates
- full copy of the Regulations.
Last updated: 03 November 2008