Historic unrecouped payments on account

On this page:

When does the new approach take affect?
What are historic cases?
How we will deal with these cases
What providers need to do now
For more information

When does the new approach take affect?

This approach took affect 2 Apr 08. It is not retrospective and will not apply:

where it was agreed we should recover payments on an historic case before that date
to cases where a recoupment has already been made, resulting in a debit note or entry to a BACs statement issued before 1 Apr 08.

It will apply to historic cases managed by all providers and former providers of legal aid services other than where we have reasonable grounds to suspect fraud, other dishonesty, or criminal conduct.

What are historic cases?

These cases are those where:

no payment has been made by the LSC since 31 Mar 02
there has been no activity on the legal aid certificate since 31 Mar 02
the total payments on account do not exceed £20,000 net of VAT
no agreement has been made between us to the effect that the outstanding payment(s) should be repaid or can be recouped
we have not created a debit note or registered a debit to a BACs statement in relation to the outstanding payments before 1 Apr 08.

How we will deal with these cases

You have a choice - we will either:

(a) treat the payments on account as being equivalent to a final claim (in which case we will close the cases without making a recoupment)
(b) deal with the cases individually, on the basis of reports to be made on a case-by-case basis.

You cannot mix options by billing historic cases that can be billed but asking us to apply option (a) to the others.

If you have more than one account we will treat each account separately and offer you the choice of option (a) or option (b) on each.

Notes on option (a)

Providers will not:

need to make individual case reports on historic cases or search for older files
justify the payments on account made
we will not seek to recover those payments when we close the cases involved.

However you cannot make any further claim for costs in any of the cases we deal with under this option. You are agreeing to limit the claim for costs to the amounts already paid out.

When deciding which option to choose you should consider whether:

the cases involved were transferred to your firm from a previous solicitor
you have a liability to discharge their costs.

The LSC will not make additional payments on any case you ask us to close under this option.

Notes on option (b)

You will not be obliged to limit your claims for costs and will be able to make further claims where appropriate.

You should submit claims as normal:

those for assessment to the LSC's regional office that normally deals with your claims
those for taxation to the Court and then the LSC for payment.

If you choose option (b) please note that we will seek reports all the cases that might otherwise be exempted under option (a).

In any case where it is not possible for you to submit a final claim or otherwise justify retention of an outstanding payment, the payment or payments will be recoverable.

What providers need to do now

We have offered all providers and former providers with cases under review the choice outlined above.

This choice will be offered from now on when new payment on account reviews begin.

When we ask for case reports we will provide a:

list of cases that qualify for treatment under these options
form for you to indicate your choice.

We will allow up to 42 days for you to make an initial response to us about the cases we have asked you to report upon.

You have the same period in which to decide and tell us whether you want to close your historic cases under option (a) or (b).

If you do not respond to us within the 42 days allowed we will proceed as we would have done had you chosen option (a).

The historic cases on your account will be closed and the costs will be assessed as being equivalent to the payments already made.

For more information

Please contact Joe Cowley with questions.

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Last updated: 16 July 2008