Press Releases pre-May 2010

The Legal Services Commission (LSC) announced today the launch of a consultation on the replacement scheme for Very High Cost (Crime) Cases (VHCCs).

Carolyn Regan, Chief Executive of the LSC, said: “The LSC is setting out a number of options for the most complex and expensive criminal cases that are designed to ensure clients continue to receive high quality legal advice. At the same time, it will also ensure litigators and advocates are fairly paid and are encouraged to work efficiently so that taxpayers receive value-for-money. In order to shape a sustainable scheme I would encourage all interested parties to respond to the consultation.”

The new scheme is designed to replace the VHCC Panel scheme, established in January 2008. In particular, each scheme proposal would need to deliver savings of the same magnitude as the 2007/08 Panel tendering exercise. The proposals for the new structure for the VHCC scheme are as follows:

Advocates

The three options for consideration are:

1. Maintain the current panel system for advocates. All advocates that meet the experience and quality entry criteria would have the opportunity to join the advocate panel.

2. Benchmarking scheme – an adaptation of the current hourly rate scheme but managed under individual case contracts. There would be no advocate panel.

3. Extending the current Advocates’ Graduated Fee scheme, which is used in cases that last up to 40 days, to include cases that are expected to last up to 60 days. All cases that last 60 days or more would be paid at 2008 Panel rates.

Regardless of the structure of the final scheme it is proposed that, in future, the quality of advocates will be assessed under the Quality Assurance for Advocates (QAA) framework. The LSC and MoJ are working with the judiciary, professional bodies and key stakeholders to develop the scheme.

Litigators

The two options for consideration are:

1. Maintaining the current panel scheme for litigators. New firms that meet the experience and quality entry criteria would be able to join the litigator panel.

2. Extending the current Litigators’ Graduated Fee scheme, which is used in cases that last up to 40 days, to include cases that are expected to last up to 60 days. All cases that last 60 days or more would be paid at 2008 VHCC rates.

Copies of the full consultation document and the initial impact assessment are available from the LSC website (https://consult.legalservices.gov.uk/inovem/consult.ti/system/calendar?siteid=132&ca_listbrand=cds). The consultation closes on 26 January 2010.

Notes to editors

• VHCCs are the most complex and expensive cases, usually taking years to reach court. Last year, there were about 400 defendants funded by legal aid in 100 VHCCs. Defence teams are typically paid around £300,000 for such cases but costs in some, such as the Jubilee Line Fraud case, have run into several millions.
• To put this in context, last year the LSC funded advice and representation for nearly 1.6m defendants. About 120,000 of these were in Crown Court cases.
• The cost of VHCCs was approximately 10% of the criminal legal aid budget. VHCC Crime expenditure was £112m out of total legal aid expenditure of £1.2bn for criminal representation.
• The 2008 rates equate to £145 per hour for a level A litigator or QC working on a category 1 (predominately terrorism and fraud offences) case.
• The interim VHCC scheme is due to run until 13 July 2010.
• Full details of the Advocates’ Graduated Fee scheme are available on the LSC website.
• Full details of the Litigators’ Graduated Fee scheme are available on the LSC website.
• The LSC will be holding a number of consultation events to enable interested parties to find out more about the policy detail and share their views on the proposals. Anyone interested in attending such an event should email vhccproject@legalservices.gov.uk.
• The LSC recently concluded the QAA research pilot which was testing assessment methods for quality assuring advocates. A consultation on QAA proposals is due to be published in February 2010.