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Legal Aid Agency extends contracts
The Legal Aid Agency has written to all providers holding face-to-face civil contracts to advise them that these will be extended to 31 March 2018. The LAA has explained that it decided to do this to align all of its civil contracts.
New contracts will be issued for welfare benefits, immigration removal centres and the housing possession court duty schemes. Existing contracts for actions against the police, clinical negligence and public law will be terminated early to bring them into line with contracts for other areas of civil legal aid work.
Legal Aid Practitioners Group director Carol Storer believes the move will have ‘advantages and disadvantages for practitioners. Some might prefer to apply for contracts all at the same time and know the outcome so they can plan their services, while others might prefer to stagger the applications to spread the work involved’.
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Actions against police contracts terminated early