CLS news

The LSC and Ministry of Justice (MoJ) have issued a press release after agreeing a way forward with the Law Society for the legal aid reform programme, following the Court of Appeal’s judgment on the Unified Contract.

The Law Society has also agreed to discontinue further litigation.

The three organisations have also issued a joint statement detailing the outcome of the negotiations.

As part of the agreement, the LSC and MoJ have agreed to:

• targeted increases in some of the fees in the civil fee schemes already introduced
• not implement further family fee changes for solicitors until April 2010
• not introduce full implementation of best value tendering for mainstream civil legal aid services until 2013, with pilots proposed in some areas between 2010 and 2013
• make new arrangements in respect of historic unrecouped payments on account (meaning generally payments on account made at least six years ago)
• provide for the right to undertake Remainder Work on the no fault termination of a contract
• make new provisions for the reconciliation of Standard Monthly Payments (SMPs) designed to keep changes to a minimum 
• delay until July 2009 the introduction of any best value tendering scheme for criminal defence services that may be introduced following a recent consultation.

For more information

If you have any questions about the agreement please contact your usual regional office contact.

Q&As will be published regularly on our website.

Read more about the agreement on the About us > Transforming legal aid pages.