IntroductionGetting paid for criminal workCriminal work, billing and payment forGetting paid for criminal workCriminal work, billing and payment forGetting paid for criminal workCriminal work, billing and payment forGetting paid for criminal workCriminal work, billing and payment forGetting paid for criminal workCriminal work, billing and payment for
14.1This chapter deals with billing and payment for criminal work. See appendix H for a summary of the Legal Aid Agency’s (LAA’s) Costs Assessment Guidance, in respect of the most common queries raised by caseworkers.
14.2Most criminal work is paid for through the monthly contract payment, the biggest exception being work done in the Crown Court.
1Standard Crime Contract 2017 Standard Terms para 14.8 and Specification (hereafter ‘the Specification’) para 5.20 and 5.25.14.3Thus although contract cases are billed individually, they are not directly paid. Instead, each firm, or office, has a fixed monthly payment set by the Legal Aid Agency (LAA). Each month, the firm submits bills which are offset against the payment, with the aim that bills and payments balance each other out over the course of the financial year. See chapter 20 for more information on this process (known as reconciliation); and on the management of criminal contracts generally. Crown Court bills in cases funded by representation orders are individually paid.
2Specification para 5.25.14.4This chapter does not deal with contract management (which is covered in Part C), but with the rules and processes for billing individual cases. For information about conducting criminal cases, see chapter 12.
14.5This is of necessity a brief overview of a complex subject. For more detailed coverage, readers are referred to the LAG book
Criminal Costs.3Edwards and Beaumont, Criminal Costs, LAG, 2016.