New Submit a Bulk Claim Service
The Legal Aid Agency will be introducing a new interim service to replace the previous CWA system.
As part of its continued efforts to restore services following the recent cyber-attack, the Legal Aid Agency will be introducing a new interim service to replace the previous CWA system that could not be safely restored: Submit a Bulk Claim. Submit a Bulk Claim enables providers to upload Legal Help, Crime Lower and Mediation monthly submissions.
The LAA is aiming to release this service ahead of the October submission deadline of Thursday 20 November.
Changes for providers
The new service will require providers to submit claims either via a revised Bulk Upload Spreadsheet or through updated CSV, XML, and TXT exports. Each claim will need to include a new, single fee code. This change has been required to enable the LAA to deliver the new service at speed.
Providers will need to include the new fee codes in their October submission (due to be submitted in November 2025) for them to be accepted by the new system.
The CWA monthly submissions contingency will end on Monday 20 October and claims must be made in Submit a Bulk Claim in order to receive future monthly payments.
To support providers to make this change, the LAA is working with software vendors who are updating their systems to accommodate and enable the new fee codes. Most vendors have confirmed that they are going to auto-generate the codes in the claim exports.
Most vendors have also confirmed that they can enable claim exports generated during the contingency period to be re-run with the new codes included, which supports our intention to require all April 25 – Sept 25 submissions to be made in Submit a Bulk Claim. However, the LAA recognises that even with this capability, there may be additional work for providers required to update claim exports from the contingency period and are continuing to explore options to minimise this.
The LAA will confirm how they will ask you to approach these in the next 2 weeks.
They acknowledge that this is a considerable change and are working as hard as possible to minimise the impact for providers, including working with a group of providers to design the service. However, due to the need to deliver a working service as early as possible, the initial release will only support the submission and pricing of claims.
Information for providers
The LAA is developing a full suite of training and guidance and will begin rolling this out as soon as possible. As a first step, they wanted to provide you with key information on the new system to help you prepare for implementation.
You can find the following documents on the incident webpage, here:
- New fee codes with mapping
- Updated bulk upload spreadsheet
- Validation overview for providers
- FAQ – This will be updated regularly
Providers will need to include the new fee codes in their October submissions as they prepare them this month.
The LAA understands this is a significant change at short notice and are committed to working closely with you to support a smooth transition.
They are keen to understand more about your monthly submissions, how you usually submit and the impacts of this change on your usual operations, you can help us by sharing your feedback in this survey.
If you have any questions, feedback, or require further clarification, please contact [email protected]