Further to our update on Tuesday 20 May, on Thursday afternoon the Chair of the Bar Council, Barbara Mills KC, met with the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) Chief Executive for an update on the response to the cyber incident.

The LAA is continuing to make progress towards restoring their systems and, in the meantime, is working on contingency arrangements. The LAA has been sending out regular update emails to solicitor firms and barristers and has now set up a dedicated webpage where all of the updates – including the FAQs that we’ve fed into – are available.

Barrister fee billing and payments

Our most pressing concern is to ensure barristers can continue to submit and be paid legal aid fees. Here are the latest updates:

Criminal legal aid Crown Court billing:
  • the separate portal remains open for barristers/chambers to continue to submit claims
  • the LAA expects that the processing of these claims is likely to come back online first so that contingency arrangements for interim payments may not be necessary
  • we asked for a likely timeframe for the restoration of claims processing, but the LAA was unable to give one at this stage
  • for the payment run of 27 May, there has been a one-day delay in posting remittance advice, but otherwise they will be arriving by DX or Royal Mail as usual. If a provider still has a query about a payment they have received they can contact [email protected] who will be able to provide remittance advice
Civil and family legal aid claims and payments:

It is likely that the Client and Cost Management System (CCMS) will take longer to restore, and contingency arrangements are being worked on as a priority.

In the latest email update from the LAA to providers (sent on Thursday) the LAA said CCMS is likely to remain unavailable into next week and that providers would be updated on the contingency scheme early next week.

In our discussion, the LAA set out their potential approach which is pending finalisation. We expect the LAA to share more on their plans early next week.

Upcoming trials and other matters:

For other matters, such as cases with a trial coming up soon where a barrister has applied to the LAA for permission for additional counsel, which the LAA has been unable to process, the LAA customer services helpline could be called on an emergency basis – 0300 200 200.

Next steps

We’ve nominated individuals to join a technical working group, including fees clerks and chambers software representatives. This group has already had an initial meeting with the LAA this week, and we anticipate will be consulted more by the LAA next week.

The LAA will remain the official source of information, and the dedicated webpage will provide the most up-to-date official information.