In the hiatus following the cancellation of family contracts last autumn two new family fee schemes, due for implementation, were postponed. The Legal Services Commission (LSC) has now announced their belated introduction from 9 May. The new schemes are:

The Family Advocacy Scheme. Under this scheme both solicitor advocates and barristers claim a single, graduated fee for advocacy work done on public and private family law cases.

The Private Family Law Representation Scheme. Under this scheme solicitors claim a standard fixed fee for work done (excluding advocacy) from the issue of proceedings to the conclusion of the final hearing.

The LSC say that online training to help preparation for the new family fee schemes is now available on their training website and encourage family providers and advocates affected by the new schemes to use this training to ensure accurate claiming. The Commission has also published new guidance on their website under Guidance on fees and funding.

Three new forms to support the schemes have been introduced:

• CLAIM1A for non-advocacy work
• CLAIM5A for advocacy work
• Advocates’ Attendance Form for advocates.

If you are an advocate you need to complete the Advocates’ Attendance Form:

• for hearings that last for more than an hour or
• when claiming bolt-ons.

The Court needs to verify the information on this form and it is the advocate’s responsibility to:

• get the form signed at court by the judge, magistrate or legal adviser and
• keep a copy of the signed form.

The advocate should submit this form with their claim. Copies of signed forms will not be kept by the court. The full list of new and revised forms can be found at:

http://www.legalservices.gov.uk/civil/forms/preview_may_2011.asp

But if you are wise enough to be a subscriber to the excellent Anya Designs iLaw system you will have these concerns catered for in the latest service pack being despatched this week.

The standard of work expected of public prosecutors, at every stage of the prosecution process, has been published this week and is open for consultation. The consultation document on core quality standards for prosecutors covers 12 key areas, from providing advice to police before a charge to sentencing and appeal processes.

Prosecutors exercise powers on behalf of the public. They deliver a public service. And that requires prosecutors to deliver their service in accordance with a set of “publicly facing core quality standards”, which says DPP Keir Starmer “lie at the heart of ensuring that excellence is delivered as the norm throughout the national service. They will lay down the minimum in terms of quality and delivery that the public are entitled to expect from those who prosecute on their behalf”. The standards will cover every major aspect of CPS work, from protecting the public to advising the investigator; through to defining the standards of service in respect of every aspect of the prosecutor’s role in court; and from supporting victims and witnesses to dealing with complaints.

This is a time of change for the prosecution service. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO) are merging. The aim is to provide for a more flexible and resilient organisation, claimed to be better placed to deal with specialist, organised, crime. The merged organisation will provide advice and prosecution services not only to the police, but also to the Serious Organised Crime Agency, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and the UK Border Agency. Writing this week in the ‘Guardian’, Keir Starmer said that “the merged organisation will prosecute over 1.1 million cases a year. And its cases will range from extremely serious terrorist ones and international organised crime at one end to antisocial conduct and disorder at the other, not to mention the challenge of prosecuting fraud and financial crime and tackling violence against women”. Was that final category a hasty afterthought?

There is a pledge to use IT systems fully and to be willing to embrace technological advances. In future the electronic case file will allow all the current paperwork that supports a case to be made available electronically to all those who need to see it. Accepting that criminal justice is currently not delivered as effectively and efficiently as it should be, henceforth the electronic case file and electronic case management systems will “become the main currency in the criminal justice service”.

The consultation paper concludes that “a criminal justice service underpinned by the rule of law and respect for human rights is at the heart of modern democracy. A modern public prosecution service – focused on protecting the public, delivering justice and supporting victims and witnesses – is at the centre of such a service. Core quality standards will ensure that we deliver what is expected in every key aspect of our work”. Consultation is open until 18 January 2010, and the full text of ‘Public Prosecution Service: Setting the Standard’ is at:-

http://www.cps.gov.uk/news/articles/the_public_prosecution_service_-_setting_the_standard/

We haven’t, which might strike you as odd.

Exhibitions are hugely expensive to exhibit at and lawyers are getting very good at using Google as their 24/7 online exhibition. The beauty of web browsing is that you get to find information comfortably, without the risk of being locked into a full sales conversation until you want to be.

And unlike all of our competitors, our website carries all of our software costs (www.anyadesigns.co.uk/pricing). The price shouldn’t be a well-kept secret you somehow earn by being prepared to talk to us. It should be upfront on demand.

And then, when you have got the basic information, you can call us or email us at a time that suits you from the comfort of your own chair.

So there it is in a nutshell: exhibitions: too expensive. Website: much cheaper and much more convenient for the person that matters, you.

Every quarter we release a new version of iLaw. This is mainly because the Legal Services Commission has instituted a raft of changes but also because we have added some good stuff that we think you will like. These service packs come out on a disc in time honoured fashion and your IT bod – or the person in the office nominated to be them for a day – gets to run around updating all the PC’s in your office.

Then 3 days later we will get an email from the LSC saying something along the lines of ‘Sorry guys but we had to change something .. again’ and we are left thinking about *another* shipment of discs, not knowing whether you really want to see them for another 3 months.

So we have changed iLaw to make it easier for you to stay up to date with interim service releases without having to collect more pink discs than you ever wanted to own. This is how you do it:

Go to the Housekeeping menu on the menu bar and select Check for software updates.

This will check your current version of iLaw. If you are up to date, it will tell you. If you are not, it will take you to our website and download the latest version. Really simple.