Today is the last working day before the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act comes into force.
For cases to continue to be dealt with under the old – much wider – scheme, the application must be signed by the client by the 31st March. Realistically, in most cases that will mean by today. In the case of Legal Help, that will mean that the case can continue under the old rules for as long as necessary (but any future certificate application will be under the new LASPO rules). For certificated cases, not only must the client have signed by today but you must also get the application forms to the LSC by 5.00pm on the 8th April. It would be wise to use special delivery for any last-minute applications so that there can be no doubt about when they were received.
Our LASPO Resources page contains a full list of all the regulations, guidance and contract amendments so far issued, including the transitional arrangements for old cases which carry on after next week.
Legal Aid Handbook 
This is a great resource – thanks. But just to say that the link to the transitional arrangements policy above is broken. The policy document seems to have been taken off the justice.gov.uk website, very unhelpfully. The only copy I’ve been able to find is on the old LSC site, http://ftp.legalservices.gov.uk/docs/cls_main/12_Policy_Statement_-_Transitional_Arrangements.pdf. I assume this is the same document, though the file has a different name.
You’re right – thanks for letting us know. I have amended the link on the resources page.
In fact all the MoJ policy statements have been deleted from the 2013 Civil Contracts page, I am not sure why. But they can all still be found here on the archived old LSC website http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20121207044149/http://www.legalservices.gov.uk/civil/2013_civil_contract.asp