I have just had a very interesting couple of days out of the office – with more to follow next week.
Whilst it really has been interesting it has not brought about any new insights save to say – there is no relaxation of the NAO inspired “financial stewardship” vice on the horizon. I’d go so far as to say it might tighten before it gets better. I also had my first experience of dealing with the “Provider Dashboard” induced investigation of “rejected” bills. This issue also cropped up at yesterdays Civil Costs training session.
I approach the former, particularly the de facto move to a position where your Legal Help financial assessments have to be as thorough that those for a certificate, as robustly as ever. With regard to the latter I do however understand, at least in part the LSC’s position. It is hard to get on your moral high horse when a firm is making repeated, basic mistakes and only a minority of errors can be attributed to the Commission.
It is an issue we have recently been grappling with in the JRS Costs Drafting team, in which we are trying to encourage a “Counsel of Perfection”. We are going to summarise our experiences and intend, shortly, to publish a bill submission checklist to assist firms to get this right. We might even run a webinar on the subject. Watch this space it will turn up here soon.
