A Merseyside solicitor who has won two appeals against Legal Aid Agency (LAA) funding assessments in six months says more firms should be more willing to challenge the agency when bills are unfairly reduced.

In December 2023, IMS Law won an appeal against the LAA in a stayed indictment case, R v Horsfall, where the LAA had refused to pay a cracked trial fee in addition to a graduated fee. The judge ruled that in a ‘swings and roundabouts’ fee system, ‘the solicitors are entitled to enjoy the roundabout of two fees for the two indictments, notwithstanding the fortuitous manner in which they came about’ ([2023] EWHC 3128 (SCCO) at para 17).

Its second victory came last month following the case of R v Parle. Parle was prosecuted for firearms conspiracy offences and there was a dispute over whether he had knowingly come into possession of the weapon. The firm put in a claim for 6,213 pages of prosecution evidence following a ‘full extraction’ of the defendant’s mobile phone. The LAA determining officer assessed it at 250 pages.

Iain MacDonald, IMS solicitor and director, describe the assessment as ‘derisory’. Over several months of negotiation, the LAA increased the number of pages to 1,358 and IMS reduced its claim to 4,484, leaving 3,126 pages of police prosecution evidence still in dispute.

MacDonald said: ‘We couldn’t let that go. If they had offered us, say, 4,000 pages, we would have settled for that rather than going to appeal.’ However, with a gap of over 3,000 pages, the firm felt it had no choice but to take the case before a costs judge. After a hearing that the LAA did not attend, the judge ruled the firm was entitled to the 4,484 pages claimed ([2024] EWHC 776 (SCCO)).

MacDonald said that after the firm’s December 2023 costs victory, it had ‘lost the fear’ of challenging the LAA when it believes the agency’s assessments are significantly flawed. He encouraged other firms to follow its example in order to increase LAA accountability, describing the cost appeals process as ‘straightforward’, and adding: ‘The judges make you feel relaxed.’

The firm was awarded £750 costs against the LAA in each case, which MacDonald accepts in no way covers the amount of his time spent in bringing the appeals.

Legal Action has approached the Ministry of Justice for comment.