CLS news

Today, 1 Feb 2012, new fees for family and housing cases, dealt with under the Family Contract 2012, come into force.

This forms part of the Legal Aid Reform changes and follows similar fee reductions introduced for other civil cases in October 2011, as detailed in the Ministry of Justice’s response to the consultation paper - Proposals for the Reform of Legal Aid in England and Wales.

What is changing

• New rates for Legal Help
• New Enhancement Caps (for upper and lower courts)
• New rates for Care Proceedings Graduated Fee Scheme (CPFGS)
• Private Family Law Representation Scheme (PFLRS) and;
• the Family Advocacy Scheme (FAS)

See the Legal Aid Reform link below for more information.

The new rates can be found in the payment annex of the Family Contract 2012. Amended Guidance for licensed work and controlled work have been published.

When the new and old rates apply

The new rates apply to work done under a certificate granted following an application made on or after 1 Feb 2012 or case start date (for all other cases) on or after 1 Feb 2012.

The old fees and rates apply if an application has been signed by the client (for certificated work) before 1 Feb 2012 and received by the LSC on or before 8 Feb 2012.

In a previous LSC update (12 Dec 2011), we advised you of our intention to reduce civil cost limits then and family cost limits in Feb 2012. Cost limits in family cases will be reduced by 10% from today, 1 Feb 2012, to reflect the reduction in family remuneration rates.

Training

We strongly recommend that you undertake free online training on our LSC Provider Training website (see link below), to ensure you understand all the changes and apply them accurately. This should minimise delays in administering claims

FAQs

If you have any queries, please see your contract managers. In addition, we regularly update the FAQs on our civil Legal Aid Reform pages. See the documents panel to download a PDF file of the FAQs

Further information

Legal Aid Reform: Summary of civil and family changes
Training: LSC Provider Training website

FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions (see documents panel)