Legal Aid Newsletter | April 2026
Welcome to your April 2026 edition of the Legal Aid newsletter from Resolution.
We will continue to put any issues you’d like us to raise to the LAA. If you have any feedback from this newsletter, or would like our team to look into any problems you face, please email us.
Resolution working for you – Provider Efficiency Team (PET)
Many thanks to Elspeth Thomson, co-chair of Resolution’s Legal Aid Committee, for attending a meeting of the LAA’s Provider Efficiency Team (PET) on 7 April.
On Customer Services, front line handlers deal with 2500 calls a week and answer 75% of calls within five minutes. They have extensive general knowledge of LAA systems. There may be longer hold times, as there are some newly trained staff who need to access advice and support form more experienced colleagues.
There is also a second tier team for more complicated queries (about 20-25% of calls). There are more challenges around getting second tier support within five minutes, which they are not currently meeting due to pressures elsewhere.
There is also an online support team, some can help with technical support and others deal with complaints.
Resolution working for you – Civil Contract Consultative Group (CCCG)
Resolution was represented at the most recent meeting on 19 March.
On Billing, the LAA has been able to throughput bills at a much higher rate, currently taking 15-18 days to process. They have 20 new caseworkers and are recruiting 20 more. This may explain why some practitioners are finding more LAA errors in bill assessment and having to get them corrected, which is time consuming.
The LAA apologised for this and explained it takes about six months to train someone fully to assess bills. They have quality control but it doesn’t pick up everything. However, quality control shows they are going in the right direction.
If you have any examples of errors, please let us have them by email: [email protected] and we will pass them on.
Civil processing dates
The LAA says they are currently receiving high levels of intake following restoration of the civil systems. The LAA’s performance against its processing targets can be found here.
The LAA ask that you only contact the Customer Service Team if your work is outside target dates or you have a hearing in the next 48 hours. If the decision needs to be made on limited information, please make that clear. They have moved people from customer services onto clearing the backlog which means there are some less experienced people on customer services.
The LAA think everything that was sent in by email during contingency has now been dealt with – if any have been missed please let them know.
The LAA say they have not been receiving as many high cost Care Case Fee Scheme cases as they were expecting and would welcome any comments to help them understand this.
Please let us have any views by email: [email protected] and we will pass them on.
Resolution National Conference 2026 – Book your place at our Legal Aid workshop
Legal aid practitioners will not want to miss the workshop, Essential legal aid updates – with Elspeth Thomson and Samantha Little, on Thursday 21 May, 3.50-5.10 pm.
It provides a much-needed opportunity for legal aid practitioners to come together, share experiences and receive clear, up-to-date guidance on the most pressing issues affecting legal aid work. In a climate where demand is high and resources are stretched, it is more important than ever for legal aid lawyers to feel supported, informed and confident in navigating this challenging area of practice.
Delegates will receive an overview of recent developments, with a focus on key areas that continue to generate difficulty in day-to-day work. The session will cover domestic abuse gateway issues, high cost cases and the effective use of experts, alongside practical advice on managing costs. We will also highlight common billing pitfalls and how to avoid them.
By the end of the workshop, participants will have a clearer understanding of current expectations, funding pressures and opportunities to maximise costs while delivering high-quality legal aid services.
Annual means test uprating
The LAA has updated the keycard and Means Assessment Guidance to reflect changes to dependants allowances, state benefits and tax rates.
Submit a Bulk Claim (SaBC)
The LAA can now void a claim made on SaBC. The claim amendment team can now search for, view and void claims submitted onto SaBC. The LAA says they are aware that this is going live while providers are busy reconciling contingency and SaBC claims. To help make this easier, they won’t be voiding any claims before 21 April unless they relate directly to that reconciliation. Any claims that are voided will be reflected in future monthly payments from 1 June 2026.
Voids entered into the system are included in the reconciliation process and reflected in payments based on when the change is made. For example, any voids completed between 21 April and 20 May will be included in the 1 June payment.
Providers were asked to fix errors in amendment forms before submitting SaBC claims. All amendment forms will be reviewed before 21 April, and providers will be asked to confirm if they are still needed. The claim amendment team will be in touch prior to the 21 April with the option to void the claim and reclaim correctly on the next submission month. This is entirely optional.
The LAA is currently working on a timescale for other amendment functionality for claims made on SaBC. The LAA are still working on plans to make amendments to claims submitted onto CWA. They will provide updates when they have a solution.
CCMS updates
Email notifications from CCMS were restored from 27 March. Email notifications will include all outstanding notifications on CCMS cases. However, the LAA says because many providers still have cases linked to their former (pre-SiLAS) CCMS usernames, email notifications may initially be received under both profiles until cases are fully reassigned.
Guidance on how to check and reassign cases to the correct SiLAS account can be found on the legal aid learning website. The LAA will send an Open Cases Report monthly. This shows which cases are allocated to which user profiles.
The LAA seeks more Family legal aid providers in Trafford
Historically the LAA’s view has been that all procurement areas have adequate numbers of family legal aid providers. So we are concerned to see that the LAA needs more providers of Family legal aid in Trafford. We have asked the LAA for information.
Find out more information about bidding
Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards 2026 – Nomination deadline approaching
The Legal Aid Practitioners Group Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards (LALYs) are the only awards which are dedicated to the work of fantastic legal aid lawyers. They are non-profit-making and only made possible due to the generosity of sponsors and supporters. Resolution is proud once again to sponsor the Family legal aid category. The deadline for nominations is 21 April 2026. The award ceremony will be held in London on 3 July 2026.
The LAA says ‘thank you’
People who receive the LAA’s regular bulletins will have seen that the LAA is acknowledging the extra effort that practitioners are having to put in:
‘Thank you for the time and effort you put into preparing and submitting historic claims. We know this required real commitment alongside your daily work. Your persistence has been vital to ending the contingency period, and we appreciate the constructive way you’ve worked with us throughout.’
We remain disappointed that the LAA has not put a simple compensation scheme in place. Where the restoration means extra time is required on files (eg due to the new system for uploading documents), that can be claimed in the usual way. Any other costs will have to go through the complaints/ex gratia scheme.
We will continue to work with the other practitioner bodies to press the LAA/MoJ to develop a scheme to compensate practitioners for the additional costs which cannot be attributed to individual files.
Peer review
The contracts for existing peer reviewers have been extended for a further six months.
The LAA is also seeking to appoint a panel of independent experts who will act as a quality assurance mechanism to ensure the consistency of Peer Review Reports and ratings. This initiative aims to find independent experts to support and oversee the Peer Review Scheme and is not a recruitment exercise for new peer reviewers. The deadline for tenders is 1 May 2026.
Legal aid statistics October – December 2025
Now that the LAA’s systems have been restored, National Statistics have been able to publish some legal aid statistics. However, data on Crime Lower, Civil Representation, Legal Help and Mediation are still unavailable.
They have published details of the overall payments made during the period for each scheme and contingency payments made. Comparisons have been made between the closed claim total expenditure usually released and these payments.
Across all schemes the total payments are of the same magnitude; but while similar, it is not possible to breakdown payments information further. National Statistics warn that the two numbers are not strictly comparable and so a cautious approach should be taken to interpretation.