Transforming civil legal aid

On this page:

Response published to Family Legal Aid Funding consultation
Changing the way we pay barristers
Proposed amendments to civil fee schemes
A routemap for civil legal aid contracts
For more information

Response published to Family Legal Aid Funding consultation

On 21 October 2009 we published our response to the Family Legal Aid Funding from 2010 consultation.

The reforms are designed to protect services for children and families and to ensure the future sustainability of family legal aid in light of increasing costs in parts of the system.

The consultation focused on proposals for two new payment schemes:

Private Family Law Representation Scheme
Family Advocacy Fee Scheme.

You can read the full consultation response, Impact Assessment and Q&A documents on the consultation pages.

Changing the way we pay barristers

An amended Family Graduated Funding Order came into force on 4 Aug 09.

This amends the way we pay barristers for family legal aid work.

Read more on our Family Graduated Fees page.

Proposed amendments to civil fee schemes

Our consultation Phase 1 Civil Fee Schemes Review proposes amendments to civil fee schemes.

The Civil contracts consultative group reviewed the schemes.

A route map for civil legal aid contracts

We remain committed to introducing new contracts in 2010 and making changes to the services we buy and how we pay for them.

Following consultation, we published final policy on the civil 2010 contracts.

Tender postponed

We will postpone the tender for the new civil legal aid contracts until late 2009 or early 2010.

New 3 year civil legal aid contracts will begin in Oct 2010.

Current contracts are extended for 6 months.

For more information

Read more about our transformation programme on the About us>Transforming legal aid page.

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Last updated: 21 October 2009