Page 14 - PIC Magazine Issue 24 - Spring-Summer (Digital)

14
Legal Aid
Costing Tips
Collaboration of Top Legal Aid Tips from Ann Henderson, Jessica Nicholls, Megan Kutter, Gemma Vallance, Chandler Edlin and Oscar Goodman.
Claimable Time
Don’t forgot to time record for claimable work. Reasonable time may be claimed for CCMS applications. Suggested LAA guidelines include:
Basic time standard for completion of a Non-Merits tested application is 30 minutes, and 48 minutes for a Merits tested application.
Additional time may be claimable for inputting
means evidence into CCMS, usually up to 30 minutes.
Allocating Counsel fees is usually 12 to 18 minutes. Submitting a POA is 12 minutes.
Submitting outcome with no costs or statutory charge is 12 minutes.
Submitting outcome with costs or statutory charge is 24 minutes.
These times are intended to be a guide only and times in excess of this may be allowed where reasonable justification is provided. (Cost Assessment Guidance (CAG) 2.58-65)
Certificates with under £25k costs limit
Ensure there is enough ‘headroom’ within the costs limit to allow any potential claim for an appropriate enhancement.
Advocacy / Attendance Notes
Where advocacy is remunerated at hourly rates it is important to record a precise breakdown of activities and time spent
to ensure your claim reflects the correct rate for the relevant activity of work. E.G ’Court attendance 13:00 – 15:30; 0:18 attendance on client at court, 0:12 Waiting, 1:30 advocacy, 0:30 travel’ rather than a brief description ‘Hearing – 13:00 – 15:30 including travel’.
Bundle Preparation
To maximise your costs recovery, ensure your file/preparation notes set out specifically what work was undertaken
as some parts of Bundle preparation may be recoverable
and some not! The LAA may allow reasonable time
engaged considering, identifying, and selecting documentation for inclusion within the Bundle. Drafting the Bundle Index is also fee earning work. (B v. B [1994] 1 FLR 323). However, the making up of the Bundle or copying of any additional Bundles is not considered fee earner work, and therefore not recoverable. It may also be reasonable to claim checking time, where a Bundle
is above average size, to ensure that it has been properly collated and reproduced. (2.16 CAG 2024).
GP Report vs Records Report Fees
The LAA will only pay £79.20 per hour, for a GP medical report, if prepared, based upon a consultation with the client and the invoice shows a full breakdown of the work undertaken. A
GP Records Report, prepared based on the client’s records, is only remunerable at a fixed fee of £50.40. Be sure to double check all GP invoices as they can often fall outside of the LAA’s codified rates, leading to unrecoverable costs, and rejection of claims. If there is any discrepancy with the GP invoice, it is best practice to resolve this with the GP, at the time the invoice is raised and ideally before settling the invoice.
Expert Cancellation Fees
An Experts cancellation fee is out of scope, where more than 72 hours’ notice of the cancellation is provided to the expert (Remuneration Regulations/4.29 Standard
Civil Contract Specification). To recover an expert’s cancellation fee, cancelled with less than 72 hours’ notice, the LAA will often require evidence that less than 72 hours’ notice was given, otherwise they are likely to disallow or reject the claim. In the event of a cancellation fee being charged, some experts will note on their invoice when they were notified of the cancellation on their invoices but many do not. We therefore recommend obtaining written confirmation of the cancellation, at the time, so this can be submitted as supporting evidence with the claim, as this information can be difficult to obtain after the event and will cause a delay in payment.
Submitting High Cost claims for payment
If you have an hourly rates case plan and have numerous staged claims for submission the LAA will allow you to submit these in any order (i.e. it doesn’t have to be Pre contract onto Stage 1, Stage 2 etc...) as long as these are approved by the LAA, you have a contract in place and the cost limit on the certificate is correct you can submit your claims as and when they become ready, you can also submit numerous claims at once, the record for us is 12 submissions!
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