Preparing for the on-line processing of family and civil legal aid claims: action required from all chambers that undertake legal aid work
27 July 2012
The Legal Services Commission (LSC) are developing a new online
system (the Client and Cost Management System - CCMS) which
will:
- move civil certificated work online for both providers
(solicitors) and counsel
- replace the current case management system
- provide an electronic document record management service,
and
- integrate debt collection and fund accounting to the
system.
The LSC are going to pilot the scheme in the North East in
October this year and will start rolling-out the project in three
tranches nationally starting from summer 2013 after incorporating a
break for providers and counsel for the introduction of Legal Aid
Reform changes. The Bar Council and Institute of Barristers Clerks
are involved through membership of the LSCs External Implementation
Group (EIG).
The pilot has the potential to involve all chambers, not just
those in the North East pilot region who receive or have received
instructions from the 47 pilot firms. Providers will manage all of
their current and future cases using the new processes. Any counsel
instructed by a pilot provider must use the electronic system to
claim fees for those cases regardless of geographical position. The
LSC will evaluate the pilot in order to make changes to the system,
communication and training before the system is implemented
nationally.
The pilot providers are:
- Alderson Dodds
- Andrew Brook Solicitors
- Baker Gray & Co
- Ben Hoare Bell LLP
- Blackett Hart & Pratt LLP t/a BHP Law
- Brennans Solicitors LLP
- Cygnet Family Law
- David Gray Solicitors
- DAWN Advice
- Freers
- Geoffrey Forrester & Co
- Gordon Brown Law Firm LLP
- Hadaway & Hadaway
- Halliday Reeves, Law Firm
- Harding Swinburne Jackson & Co
- Hewitts Solicitors
- K Boswell & Co
- Kidd and Spoor
- Kidd Spoor Taylor
- Leigh Turton Dixon
- Longden Walker & Renney
- Marshall Hall Levy
- McKeag and Co
- McKenzie Bell
- Mortons
- Newcastle Law Centre
- Nicholson Portnell
- Patterson Glenton & Stracey
- Paul Dodds Solicitors
- Paul J Watson Sols
- Peter Dunn and Co
- Power Scott
- Richard Reed Solicitors
- Richmond Anderson Goudie
- Samuel Phillips Law Firm
- Smith & Copsey
- Stockton District Advice and Information Service
- Swinburne & Jackson
- Swinburne Maddison
- Swinburne, Snowball & Jackson
- T C SMITH
- Tait Farrier Graham
- Tilly Bailey & Irvine
- TMJ Legal Services
- V.G. Waugh
- Watson Woodhouse
- Wholley Goodings LLP
Chambers (and barristers) who accept work from those firms
participating in the pilot programme will need to:
- assign a Single Point of Contact (SPOC) for each chambers
- identify unpaid claims from past and current interactions with
the 47 providers
- set up the accounts for all relevant members of chambers,
and
- stop sending claims to the LSC two weeks before the pilot
starts.
The LSC has so far focused their communications to Chambers on
the North Eastern Circuit but have asked the 47 providers to list
barristers they normally instruct, regardless of their
location.
What do you need to do now:
The programme team responsible for the pilot are requesting that
all Chambers and sole practitioners review their records and
identify ANY cases with fees outstanding from the 47 pilot firms
listed above. Those cases not identified by barristers / solicitors
as live may not be carried over and payment will then be
more difficult to obtain.
The LSC will work with chambers and pilot providers to resolve
outstanding queries and get the cases as up to date as possible
prior to go-live. Any cases not resolved before go live will be
transferred to CCMS. You will be able to claim costs for these
cases through the online system. If you have any cases with
fees outstanding from the 47 providers listed above please contact
Fionnuala
Byrne by 17 August 2012.
For more information about the online system please email
the CCMS Pilot
team.