Legal Aid Agency U-turn in assessments of claims

Please click here for the updated guidance, which replaces the guidance below.

Back in August 2020 the LAA unexpectedly and without consultation from providers, decided to bring all assessments of legal aid claims back to the LAA, meaning that there would be no more court assessments.

Following this, the Law Society lodged judicial review proceedings in September 2020, claiming that the LAA had failed to consult properly around the decision to remove assessment of legal aid claims out of the hands of the courts and bring them in-house.

The High Court has formally endorsed a settlement of the Society’s claim. Under the terms, the Lord Chancellor will announce a fresh consultation on whether civil bills should be assessed in-house by the LAA in future rather than by specialist Cost Judges. The consultation is expected to run during February 2021 leading to a decision in March or April 2021.

Therefore, pending a new decision by the LAA, you may, if your claim has not been assessed:

1. Submit a Bill of Costs to Court for assessment
2. Submit a Claim to the LAA for assessment

If your claim has been assessed by the LAA since 17 August 2020 by the LAA then you may:

1. Submit to the Court for a de novo assessment if a provider is dissatisfied with that assessment by the LAA

There are obviously pros to either option in the assessment procedure and your firm will need to choose the best option for your firm. The benefits can be summarised as follows:

Court Assessed- The benefit of this route is that there is a possibility that the Courts will go back to assessing Bills as drawn including enhancements and less chance of an appeal being required.

LAA Assessed- The benefit of this route is that payment is going to be quicker than the court assessed route, there is less admin involved and the process is electronic.

In conclusion it is promising that the LAA have agreed, in principle, to engage in a genuine consultation about abolishing the assessment of civil bills by the Courts. We will await the terms of the consultation and update you following the same.