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9.77Once you have determined the case is in scope and Legal Help or CLR, as appropriate, has been granted (and assuming there is sufficient merit on an ongoing basis), you can conduct the case.
9.78Generally you are permitted to take instructions, take witness statements, make applications and representations, conduct appeals, and so on.
9.79There are rules that govern certain aspects of the conduct of cases, which we will look at in this section.
Attendance at interviews
9.80These are excluded under LASPO unless allowed by regulations.
1LASPO Sch 1 Pt 1. The Civil Legal Aid (Immigration Interviews) (Exceptions) Regulations 2012
2SI No 2863 as amended by SI No 192 (2017). provides for attendance at asylum screening interviews and asylum interviews where the person is a child
3Reg 3 and see also explanatory statement of these regulations., or at an asylum interview where the person is either being detained at a specified immigration removal centre
4SI 2017 No 192 reg 4(a)(i) specifies Colnbrook, Harmondsworth and Yarl’s Wood as from 16 March 2017. or lacks mental capacity.
5Reg 4. In respect of attendance at interview of a child, a child does not include a child whose age is being disputed at the time of the interview unless the UKVI have said that they are nevertheless going to treat the person as a child for the purpose of the interview.
6Reg 2.9.81Payment for attendance at an interview is not determined by the age of the child at the time of signing controlled work but whether the child is a still a child at the time of the actual interview.
9.82Where you attend in a standard fee case, you can claim the interview additional fee. In an hourly rate case, the contract says that attendance at a substantive interview is outside the relevant costs and disbursement limits.
7Standard Civil Contract Specification 2013 para 8.83. See also page 84 of Guidance for reporting controlled work matters, v15, Annex J: immigration and asylum.Travel to detained clients
9.83You can claim for travel and waiting costs to visit a client in detention. However, travel time is capped to a maximum of three hours for the return journey. Travel and waiting time and associated disbursements are excluded from any applicable costs limit, and in a standard fee case payable on top of the relevant fee.
8Standard Civil Contract Specification 2013 para 8.48.Bail
9.84Where a client is in detention, you can make a bail application where there is merit to do so.
9.85Bail applications to the tribunal are covered by CLR funding (applications for temporary admission and chief immigration officer bail are under Legal Help).
9Standard Civil Contract Specification 2013 para 8.81. If you do not already have CLR open for an appeal, you should grant CLR to cover bail. If you are already conducting an appeal, you should extend the scope of CLR to cover the bail application. The merits test for bail is the same for CLR generally, except will be specifically related to the prospects of a successful bail application.
9.86Bail work is always paid at hourly rates.
10Standard Civil Contract Specification 2013 para 8.77. See below for costs limits in bail matters.
Attendance at hearings
9.87Appeals work is out of scope of Legal Help, but is covered by CLR. You may instruct an advocate (within or outside your organisation) to attend any hearing if CLR has been granted.
9.88The advocate’s time should be included on your claim as if it were your profit costs and it will be paid at the relevant hourly rate or as part of the standard fee – in a standard fee case, their time will count towards exceptionality. Where an advocate is instructed, you cannot make a claim for time spent accompanying them at the hearing.
11Standard Civil Contract Specification 2013 para 8.99.9.89You can apply to the LAA to increase the rates payable to advocates (including advocates employed by you) if the case raises an exceptionally complex or novel point of law (eg country guidance cases) or if there is a significant wider public interest (as defined above). Any enhanced rates that may be granted apply to advocacy, attendance and preparation only.
12Standard Civil Contract Specification 2013 paras 8.90–8.92.9.90Time spent instructing advocates and in conference is properly claimable if reasonable in the circumstances of the case.
Post-appeal work
9.91The scope of Legal Help ends at the point of Home Office decision and consideration of CLR merits. Therefore, by definition, Legal Help cannot be used for post-appeal follow-up work, such as chasing of status papers and advice on status.
9.92The CLR will cover advice on the outcome of the appeal, including on the rights conferred by a grant of status, together with any post-appeal advice and assistance that does not justify a new matter start (see above for rules on matter start boundaries).
13Standard Civil Contract Specification 2013 para 8.65.Appeals to the Upper Tribunal
9.93Work on an application for permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal, and if granted the appeal itself and any subsequent remittal back, is CLR work. It is payable at hourly rates.
14Standard Civil Contract Specification 2013 para 8.98.If you apply for permission to appeal and permission is refused, you may not claim any costs related to the application or appeal, but may claim any disbursements incurred, including interpreters’ fees. This rule does not apply in detained fast track cases
15At the time of writing the DFT remains suspended. Ministers have indicated an intention to restart it. or where it is the UKVI which appeals.
16See paras 8.93–8.98 of the Standard Civil Contract Specification 2013.9.94In all new controlled work cases opened on or after 2 December 2013,
17Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013 Sch 1 Table 8(b) was revoked by Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 reg 2(4)(a). you are no longer able to claim an uplift on legal aid rates in at risk appeals to the Upper Tribunal where permission to appeal is granted.
18Standard Civil Contract Specification 2013 para 8.94 will no longer apply to cases opened from 2 December 2013. If permission to appeal is granted on an at risk appeal, you can only claim the standard hourly rates.
19Set out in Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013 Sch 1 Table 8(c).Higher courts litigation
9.95Onward litigation will usually take the form of an appeal to the Court of Appeal against a decision of the tribunal. In this case, a full representation certificate is required. See chapter 5 for information on applying for a funding certificate.
9.96For appeals to the Court of Appeal, the initial application to the Upper Tribunal for permission is funded as part of controlled work.
20Standard Civil Contract Specification 2013 para 8.55. If that application is granted, or if it is refused and renewed to the Court of Appeal, a certificate will be needed to fund proceedings before the Court of Appeal, and the issue of the certificate will end the controlled work matter. Therefore, remittal back to the tribunal would be a new matter.
9.97The main difference in the immigration category to the usual rules on certificate applications is that you do not have the delegated function to grant emergency certificates in judicial review claims unless you have specifically been granted that power by the LAA – the reverse of the position in other categories, where suppliers have the power by default. You therefore need to submit an application for emergency funding to the LAA. From 1 April 2016, emergency and substantive funding certificate applications must be submitted via the LAA Client Case Management System (CCMS) – see para 1.5 above. However, at time of writing, there is still an immigration special dedicated email address for applications for funding of out-of-hours emergency interim order applications to the Administrative Court. There was a dedicated email address for enquiries on general immigration funding but at the time of writing it is unclear whether this will be introduced.