Legal aid bill
The debate in the House of Lords last week moved onto Part 2 of the bill, which deals with reforms to civil litigation funding. But the minister, Jonathan Djanogly, hinted at further concessions when speaking at an event on Thursday. Reports of the event can be found in the Guardian, and on the LAG blog. One consequence of the reforms is a likely increase in litigants in person, on which the Gazette reported.
New family and housing contracts
As we reported last week, new contracts began on Thursday. The tender for those that were unsuccessful opened today and closes in two weeks. More detail on the tenders page of the LSC website.
Criminal litigation fees
The LSC has reminded criminal practitioners of circumstances in which they can claim additional fees for providing evidence of means.
Costs against the LSC
The Court of Appeal gave judgement this week in Leeds City Council v Price [2012] EWCA Civ 59, a case in which Leeds tried and failed to get the LSC to pay their costs in an successful case against legally aided litigants. Leeds’ conduct was something of a comedy of errors, with a series of delays, misunderstandings and poor drafting repeatedly scuppering their efforts. While Leeds clearly had no idea how to go about getting costs against the LSC, the judgement does set out the requirements and steps that must be gone through and is worth reading.
Legal Aid Handbook 