As promised revised standard letters are now available in the resources section of this site. (Scroll down to the bottom).
Use them wisely!
Andy is in the ‘Boro today finalising changes to our standard letters etc. necessitated by the October civil changes. They now require the skilled formatting hand of Sandra and then they have to go all the way to Scotland to be put into the resources link on the sidebar.
You should be able to download them shortly if you are desperate we might be able to handle e-mail requests from later on today!
We have had a few calls about Civil forms today so for the avoidance of doubt, if you have not had a Masterpack update yet, you can get all the new forms and new October 07 versions on the LSC website.
Here is a link to the new batch of Contracting Forms. Use these and go through all fee earners desks etc. to seek an destroy now obsolete versions.
That is all.
One of last weeks areas of friction, as you may well recollect, was with regard to the reporting of September 07 Civil Contract work. It was a late in the day document regarding transitional arrangements which sparked the concern. This stated, contrary to what we to then thought to be the case, that paper claims for civil work would not be accepted after October 1st.
We discussed this with the LSC believing the only rational interpretation of these arrangements was that as this was September reporting it fell under the previous contract and consequently paper submissions were acceptable. In effect we argued the new contract affects the reporting of contract work completed post October, a view supported by the guidance we quoted here on Friday. This view is further supported by the fact that post October 1st a new set of CMRF forms become operational all demanding information not previously required and which the current Online system could not process.
Today an amended version of the document which sparked the issue has been released which states:
“paper forms will still be accepted after October 2007″
(On Friday when I asked for a categoric answer to the question “will paper submissions post October 1st be accepted” I was of course told the opposite.)
How what seemed to us very simple transitional arrangements end up causing such confusion is beyond belief. No sorry it is not, it is par for the course.
UPDATE
The same position applies to the new CDS 6 as Online Marketing confirmed earlier:
“I can confirm that the new CDS6 format that includes the new scheme codes will be mandatory for October’s submission that is submitted in November”.
As you can probably imagine we have had a bit of an ear bending over the phone regarding the October changes. Confusion reigns (watch for further news here today regarding Online billing for instance!). A major gap in recent training (ours and theirs) has been lack of direct practical guidance on billing/reporting – not helped by the fact that forms were not actually available at the bulk of those courses.
Consequently we have had our arms twisted a bit to run a “nuts and bolts” session dealing with issues such as; which is the right form to use, how to issue Civil UFN and UCNs, how to report exceptional cases and how to avoid having your Online billing rejected?
We will also be attempting a very risky Question and Answer session, (as ever, for the grizzly, without the aid of a safety net!).
Timescales have restricted the events to our Northern heartlands, on the following dates:
Manchester – 25th October
Newcastle Gateshead – 30th October
Leeds Bradford – 31st October
Here is a downloadable booking form, alternatively you can ring or E-mail the office.
So if your idea of fun is watching someone dodging rotten fruit – we can indulge you in the very near future.
Having had a few queries about the move to mandatory electronic billing here is a link to the LSC guidance and below is a key area of current client concern:
How will these changes affect current LSC Online users?
It is important to us that these changes do not negatively impact on your ability to submit your monthly claims for controlled work. To ensure a smooth transition there are some key dates you need to be aware of:
As we reach the end of the current training tour I think it is worth reinforcing certain point especially those which have cropped up most commonly in recent phone traffic.
The new forms have begun to dribble through – I have a new CLS Claim 1A and an EC Claim 1 in front of me and I have just spoken to someone who has sight of a CW1 PL too. They are not on the web site as yet.
The CW1 PL (for Level 2 Family Help in Public Law when acting for a parent or someone with Parental Responsibility) makes clear one of the controversies identified during our sessions. The LSC line seems to have been more robustly expressed as their concurrent briefing sessions rolled out to whit – you must have written confirmation of the Local Authorities’ intention to issue proceedings before you can complete the CW1 PL. Or as someone in Wales paraphrased “there will be no level 2 claims”. Apparently there have been national negotiations with the LAs to ensure even operation of this protocol however this does not look likely in the immediate future.
Staying with Public Law can we reconfirm that the escape multiplier at level 3 is 2 times the anticipated graduated fee.
Don’t forget the 21 day “cooling off period” before claiming settlement fees and neither the 6 month claw-back rule for the same in Level 2 private law work.
Finally we also promised to pass on information of as to what constitutes a “substantive benefit” outcome code – so here they are.
P.S. As the practicalities become apparent, on the receipt of the forms etc. (check your master-pack updates and guidance), would anybody be interested in a shorter than usual course for those practically involved in billing/reporting? Shout up or I will happily avoid the pain this will certainly involve.
Lets get straight to the chase.
Personal Injury is an “exclusive” franchise category.
There is no “tolerance” standard fee for Legal Help work under the new scheme.
You can therefore not do CICA claims, without a PI franchise, from October.
One of the side benefits of training tours, in addition to the odd bit of juicy gossip, is a chance to get a feel for issues of concern to the profession and to get a first feel for likely unforeseen consequences of LSC proposals.
As ever, from the speakers vantage point, it is always interesting to watch lawyers minds whirring when confronted with a new set of payment regulations. The most immediate example relates to claiming the Level 2 Public Law standard fee for support of parents (or those with parental responsibility).
The level runs from the point at which the Local Authority issues notice of intention to issue proceedings. Now in contract it suggests that this should be in formal written form and yet any number of delegates are indicating to us that their LAs never issue such notices or make such an indication in correspondence. We will obviously get a feel for this across the UK over the next two weeks, and feed that back to the powers that be, however your thoughts and experience of this issue would be very welcome either in the comments box below or directly.
Sorry, this has passed us by (we don’t get the same correspondence suppliers get).
You seemingly have until this Friday, 31st August, to make your last ever claim for Civil File Review. The claim should contain all actual claims from 1st October 2006 plus an estimate of any others yet to be done before 30th September 2007. The form to use is the FR1.
We have been alerted to this deadline by an observant client from the North East Region who received correspondence from that Regional Office. Some feedback from other areas would therefore be appreciated especially if this is, perversely, only a little local problem.
Further to yesterdays post there is no corresponding notification of this deadline in the “What’s New” section of the LSC web-site.
