Press Release
Final tailored fixed fee scheme announced
31 January 2005
The Legal Services Commission (LSC) has today announced that significant changes have been made to the ‘tailored fixed fee’ scheme, which becomes mandatory from 1 April 2005, following consideration of the responses to the consultation paper.
The scheme introduces a new approach of paying legal aid solicitors fixed fees for each case, based on their average claims between 1 April 2003 and 31 March 2004, rather than the current system where the LSC pays for the time spent on individual cases.
The consultation paper A Tailored Fixed Fee Scheme for Civil (Non-Immigration) Controlled Work was published in July 2004. Consultation ran until 1 November 2004. A total of 89 responses were received to the consultation paper. Responses were received from a large number of representative bodies, such as The Law Society, Legal Aid Practitioners Group and the Mental Health Lawyers Association, and many solicitors’ firms.
The key changes to the scheme include:
Mental health lawyers can choose whether to include their work within the mandatory scheme.
The financial threshold for an ‘exceptional case’ has been expanded. Additional payments can be claimed for ‘exceptional cases’, which cost at least three times the tailored fixed fee or £2,500, whichever is the lower and are out of profile with previous claims.
The LSC will pay any increase in overall average disbursement costs, not just those attributable to clients with special needs.
Commenting on the final scheme, Clare Dodgson, Chief Executive of the LSC, said: "I would like to thank everyone who responded to the consultation paper for their detailed and constructive feedback. We have made a number of improvements to the scheme as a direct result of the feedback received. I’m sure legal aid solicitors will welcome these improvements. The changes made are positive proof of the open consultation exercise. Legal aid solicitors can now carry out their very valuable work, advising, often vulnerable, clients with a greater certainty of the payment they will receive for their work."
Because of the significant benefits the tailored fixed fee scheme offers to legal aid providers, the LSC invited providers to join the scheme on a voluntary basis before the consultation period concluded. The deadline for joining the scheme voluntarily expired on 1 October 2004. Providers who account for over 65% of expenditure at this level (excluding mental health and immigration) voluntarily signed up to the scheme.
However, it is considered that more providers may have joined the scheme voluntarily if the revised arrangements for exceptional cases and disbursements had been proposed in the consultation paper. Therefore, the deadline for joining the scheme voluntarily has been extended until 28 February 2005. Providers should contact their local LSC regional office to join the scheme voluntarily. Providers that have not joined the scheme by then will enter the scheme when it becomes mandatory on 1 April 2005. Providers receive a 2.5% uplift on their average costs when they join the scheme.
The LSC anticipates that the tailored fixed fee scheme will operate until at least 2006, to be replaced by a fixed fee system using either national or regional averages for categories of law, but this will depend in part on the recommendations of the Fundamental Legal Aid Review. Any changes to the scheme will be fully consulted on.
Media information
Richard Shand Tel: 020 7759 0491
Notes to editors
Copies of the A Tailored Fixed Fee Scheme for Civil (Non-Immigration) Controlled Work consultation paper and the Summary of Responses to the Consultation Paper are available from the LSC’s website.
Last updated: 28 December 2006