How long do legal aid take to pay?

How long do legal aid take to pay?

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Hi guys,

We have previously performed a forensic accountants report for a POCA case. We did the report and I attended court etc. I had my fees agreed with legal aid via the solicitors up front and got the solicitors to sign a guarantee that stated in the event legal aid would not pay (for whatever reason) they would foot the bill.

Anyway, it's been far too long for my liking the solicitor responds to me quite slowly too. I'm assured that they are also chasing for their owns costs too and that it's just a matter of time.

I'm starting to get paranoid now though. Has only else dealt with a similar situation and if so what was the experience?

Cheers!

Replies (2)

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David Winch
By David Winch
02nd Mar 2015 23:17

Thoughts

I assume that you quoted a fixed fee in advance based on estimated numbers of hours for each grade of staff, that your hourly rates for each grade of staff did not exceed those fixed by Statutory Instrument for legal aid purposes & that the solicitor obtained a 'prior authority' from the Legal Aid Agency before you commenced the work.

I also assume that your fixed fee is precisely in accordance with the prior authority (except for the addition of VAT).  You will therefore not have included in your bill to the solicitor anything for mileage or other out of pocket expenses.

I also assume that the case has not yet come to court or if it has (i) that your bill to the solicitors does not include any time or expenses relating to your attendance at court and (ii) the solicitors have not yet billed the LAA for their own fees in relation to the case.

In that event the solicitors can apply to the LAA for payment to them of your fee + VAT as an interim disbursement.  That should come through reasonably swiftly, within a few weeks.

If however the solicitors have already billed the LAA for their fees (the matter having concluded) and have lumped your fee in with that then I suggest you make a note to chase this up at Christmas if you haven't been paid by then.

If by the way you attended court you should be billing the court (not the solicitors) for your time & expenses for that.  Different (lower) hourly rates apply.

David

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By Happy Up North Accountant
03rd Mar 2015 14:57

Merci

Sincere thanks for the response David - I was hoping you would respond in particular!

I didn't go into the specifics because I was just looking for a general rule of thumb but I appreciate that the specifics effect the outcome.

To be honest it was the first engagement I've had in this area so the processes aren't familiar. Before drafting my terms of business I had the legal aid agreement which was a fixed fee for our services plus something like £300 for each day in court.

I understand that our fees have been applied for separately - but wow, Christmas? I know the processes are slow and behind, but Christmas?? :-)

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