EFIS 4, January 2012 : Legal Aid

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The Legal Services Commission has made a variety of miscellaneous amendments to the forms listed which should be used from Wednesday 1st February 2012.

Amendments have been made to AF1 to accommodate defendants with more than one MAAT number and advocates claiming for additional case uplifts. The signature clauses to CLSAPP3, CLSAPP5 and CLSAPP8 have been amended to make reference to the 2012 Standard Civil Contract (Family and Housing) which will be introduced from February 2012 to replace the Unified Contract.

CLSMEANS1 and CLSCK3 have been amended by the LSC to clarify requirements, prompted by Provider feedback.

CLSCLAIM1A(NOTES) and CLSCLAIM5A(G) have been amended to reflect revised fees for family work which will be introduced in February 2012 following the implementation of the Community Legal Service (Funding) (Amendment No 2) Order 2011. The examples in the guidance and the fee tables in the CLAIM 1A and the CLAIM 5A have therefore been amended.

CWORK1, CWORK1_2_MH and CWORK2(IM) have been amended to clarify the wording of the equity calculation.

NOTICE_1, NOTICE_2 and NOTICE_3 were previously contained in the LSC Manual. They were removed when work was carried out to streamline the content of the Manual and are now being included in the Masterpack so that they are generally available to providers.

Version 7 of the LF1 form did not include a section to enable Litigators to claim the committal for trial fee if they have a representation order dated between 06/04/10 and 02/10/11. This will be reinserted into section three of the form. The committal for trial explanatory note will also be reinserted at the bottom of section three. The explanatory note will be amended to include, 'the committal for trial fee can only be claimed where the representation order is dated between 06/04/2010 to 02/10/2011'.

The wording on LAC1 has been amended to reflect where the form can be signed. Addition of MAAT number in order that we can identify the claim with a MAAT record for collection of final defence costs purposes.

The Version 9 CDS14, CDS15 and CDS15C forms will come into use from the 1st February 2012. LSC will continue to accept Version 8 forms beyond this for 3 months. Please note that due to the significant changes to the forms, Version 8 and Version 9 cannot be used together in one application. The Key change to the form is that all applicants with an income of less than £12,475, who don't own a house and who don't have any savings/investments, will now no longer be required to complete the CDS15. This will help to reduce the number of rejected / returned applications for questions not answered.

Forms affected

CWORK2(IM)	Controlled Legal Representation (Immigration)	New/Amended
CDS14	Application for Legal Aid in Criminal Proceedings	New/Amended
CDS15	Financial Statement for Legal Aid in Criminal Proceedings	New/Amended
CWORK1	Legal Help, Help at Court and Family Help (Lower)	New/Amended
CLSCLAIM1A(NOTES)	Guide to the completion of the CLS Claim 1A	New/Amended
CWORK1_2_MH	Legal Help and Controlled Legal Representation - Mental Health	New/Amended
CLSAPP3	Application for funding in Family Proceedings	New/Amended
LF1	Litigation Fee claim - this form should be completed for all litigator fee claims.	New/Amended
CLSAPP5	Application for funding in special children act proceedings	New/Amended
CLSCLAIM5A(G)	Guidance to the completion of the CLS Claim 5A	New/Amended
AF1	Claim for Advocate Graduated Fees (AF1) Under Scheme 6	New/Amended
CLSAPP8	Application for amendment or prior authority in civil cases	New/Amended
LAC1	Legal Aid Committal Form	New/Amended
CLSMEANS1	Financial Assessment Form	New/Amended
NOTICE_1	Notice of Issue of Certificate	New/Amended
NOTICE_2	Notice of Issue of Extension/Amendment of Certificate	New/Amended
NOTICE_3	Notice of Discharge or Revocation of Certificate	New/Amended
CDS15C	Financial Statement for Legal Aid in Criminal Proceedings - Continuation of questions	New/Amended
CLSCK3	Financial Assessment Forms Checklist	New/Amended

Crown copyright forms are reproduced with the permission of the Controller of the Stationery Office. Law Society forms are reproduced with the permission of the Law Society. Legal Aid Forms are produced with the permission of the LSC.