Legal Aid - What's New for 2020

With the start of another year and a new decade, the LAA are trying to make the whole process more user friendly with a new status report service, trying to answer general queries quicker with a dedicated customer service twitter account and are trying to process applications and claims faster.

Here are further details of what is new with the LAA…..

New Status Report Service

Since the 6 January 2020 the LAA will be emailing spreadsheets showing the status of live work requiring a providers attention in CCMS and showing the current status of matters in CCMS.

The spreadsheet reports are being sent to the primary contact liaison manager. The spreadsheets will outline the providers active cases in CCMS and at what stage each case is at.

If a provider does not have any cases with outstanding actions then they will receive a report every two months which outlines all of their active CCMS cases.

Customer Service Twitter Account

The LAA have now set up the option of providers contacting the LAA through @LAAHelpTeam to raise any issues with the application and billing stages on CCMS. The service went live on 9 January 2020 and has already provided advice and updates.

The account will be monitored from 9am to 3pm daily. The LAA have stated that they will aim to respond to tweets within 1 hour of being posted.

The LAA intend this service to include the following:

· hints and tips to improve understanding of our processes

· guidance on how to use our daily chat service

· spotlighting training opportunities provided by the LAA, providers and your rep bodies

Processing times of applications and claims

The LAA continually aim to turnaround applications and bills as soon as possible. Currently the LAA target 80% of all civil applications within 20 working days (excluding the most complex cases). In respect of billing, the LAA target 90% of complete and accurate bills within 20 working days. With very high costs case plans and correspondence (family cases exceeding £25,000 using single counsel) the LAA targets a figure of 90% within 20 working days.

So that you know when to expect items to be processed, the LAA’s current position is as follows:

Civil Applications	Current Position (working days)
Applications (including means assessment)	4 days
Amendments/Authorities	3 days
Appeals	13 days
Discharge	6 days
Means Re-assessments	6 days

 

Billing Work Type	Current Position (working days)
Court Assessed	3 days
Fixed Fee	3 days
Hourly Rate	3 days
FAS	0 days
POA	0 days

 

In respect of billing it is important to remember to submit the CCMS outcomes for each set of proceedings to avoid payment delays as the timescales above reflect the claims that have already had their outcomes reported and finalised.

High Costs Work Type	Current Position (working days)
Case Plan	40 days
Claim 1 in lieu of a case plan	14 days
Correspondence	12 days
Contracts	0 days

 

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