Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 9
9
The Legal Aid Agency has made changes to help the legal professions.
Conclusion
The Legal Aid Agency has made changes to help the legal professions. For example, it has made it easier to claim interim and hardship payments, aligned some fees for remote work with those for in-person work, and halted pursuit of outstanding debts owed to the Legal Aid Agency. Amanda Pinto told us “I am happy to say that the CPS and the Legal Aid Agency have done sterling work in reducing the backlog in paying their fees.” (Paragraph 29) 16 Coronavirus (COVID-19): the impact on the legal professions in England and Wales
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
Turning to the legal aid market, the Ministry of Justice and Legal Aid Agency introduced a range of measures to help legal aid providers to weather the coronavirus pandemic while maintaining access to justice for the most vulnerable in society. These include initiatives which support civil, family, and criminal legal aid practitioners to keep the justice system running: • Expanding the scope and relaxing the evidence requirements for hardship payments in crown court cases – including reducing the threshold for work done to £450, rather than the previous £5,000. • Pausing the pursuit of outstanding debts owed to the Legal Aid Agency. • Suspending sanctions in relation to missed deadlines for delegated function applications, substantive amendments and appeals against LAA decisions. • Holding regular meetings with key stakeholders, including legal aid practitioners and representative bodies, to assist in the rapid identification and resolution of issues. • Publicising existing avenues of financial help for legal firms, such as the ability to apply for early payment for work already done on a case, and changing rules for payment on account for providers, benefitting cashflow in the short-term and ensuring that providers can claim the same amount of money for online hearings as they can for face-to-face hearings. • Increased the opportunities for civil legal aid barristers to claim payment on account, and increased the cumulative amount they can claim on account. Additionally, we announced in August that we would be taking forward the policy proposals from the accelerated areas of the Criminal Legal Aid Review (CLAR) that practitioners told us mattered most. The accelerated areas allowed us to inject up to £51million into criminal legal aid.