Advocate fee
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The proposals
Lord Carter proposed the following amendments to the Advocates Graduated Fee Scheme, which were originally published in his report Legal Aid: A Market Based Approach:
- enhanced base fees that include payment for the first two days at trial and incorporate the majority of ancillary payments that are currently paid as ancillary fees
- uplifts limited to pages of prosecution evidence, number of prosecution witnesses and length of trial – length of trial only begin to be paid where the case exceeds two days
- each case fee payable to a single advocate as identified at the outset of the case
- the introduction of revised case categories to allow different fees for those advocates undertaking the most challenging cases.
Following consultation we implemented these changes to the Advocates' Graduated Fee Scheme on 30 April 2007.
We have worked with the Ministry of Justice, National Taxing Team, HMCS, Bar Council and the Bar’s IT providers to ensure the practical implementation of the changes to Advocates' Graduated Fee Scheme.
Reference materials
Reference materials are on the National Taxing Team website.
Claim forms
Claims under Scheme 4 should be made on Form 5144f, which can be accessed using this link:
http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/courtfinder/forms/5144f_e0707.pdf
Earlier schemes can be claimed using 5144(d) and 5144(e) respectively and these can be accessed via the form-finder' screen on the HMCS website, using this link:
http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/HMCSCourtFinder/GetForm.do?court_forms_id=2191
For more information
These amendments came into force on 30 April 2007. Read more on the Pay rates and schemes>New advocacy rates page.
Last updated: 17 October 2008