The Legal Aid Agency had previously stated that a draft bill would be deleted by the Client and Costs Management System (CCMS) if 42 days had passed since it was last worked on. It has since been confirmed that the system is actually automatically deleting draft bills for LAA assessment after 28 days. It is therefore very important to ensure that bills are submitted or worked on further before the 28 day period elapses.
A 42 day time limit will apply if the draft bill is to be assessed by the court. The original intention was for court bills to be prepared in CCMS however the LAA have so far been unable to reach agreement with the courts regarding the format of the document that CCMS could generate that would be accepted by the courts. Therefore at present court bills must still be prepared in the traditional way and only the post assessment claim is entered into CCMS.