CLS news

On 14 July, an amended Family Graduated Fee (FGF) funding order was made. 

About the funding order

The order will come in to force on 4 August.

The FGF changes were announced in February following a full consultation, and will be applicable to all work carried out under new and existing certificates from 4 August 2009.

The order implements the following changes to the FGF scheme:

• In public law cases abolish the "more than two parties" SIP.
• increase base hearing fees for public law children cases
• in private law children cases, reduce the uplift provided by the "conduct" SIP from 50% to 30%
• in private law children cases, reduce the uplift provided by the "more than one expert" SIP from 50% to 20%
• in ancillary relief cases abolish the "conduct" SIP; the "assets" SIP; the "more than one expert" SIP; and the "analysis of accounts" SIP 
• in ancillary relief cases, reduce the uplift provided by the "litigant in person" SIP from 25% to 20%
• in ancillary relief cases, reduce the uplift provided by the "relevant foreign element" SIP from 25% to 20%.

Special Preparation Fees

In addition to the changes detailed above, we are also introducing improved procedures for barristers' claims for Special Preparation Fees (SPF):

• Barristers claiming SPF should submit a detailed schedule to judges of the hours spent in preparation so that these payments are only made where appropriate.
• We have also redesigned the Special Issue Payment (SIP) Form, to make clearer the basis for claiming each SIP, a verification for court bundle payments, and further clarifications.

These forms, along with a revised CLAIM5 Form, will be available on the LSC website in due course.

Further information

For further information, please contact the Family Policy team.