Tag Archive for 'Legal Services Commission'

Social Welfare contracts – not over yet

By NL on 17/10/2010. 2 Comments

While Family and Family and Housing roll on under the old contracts, SWL new contracts are due to start on 15 November.

However, there is another judicial review claim by an unsuccessful firm, Davies Gore Lomax of Leeds. The hearing is listed for 27 October.

The claim is apparently on the grounds that:

The point for having 10 upper tribunal appeal cases was irrational (the same argument advanced by CLP in their settled proceedings)

The points for having an approved intermediary for debt at the time of the bid were unfair when “the LSC said in its consultation response last summer that we did not need to have one … Read the full post

Posted in Housing law - All and Various (non-housing). Tags: , , .

LSC: goalposts aren’t moved, just very bendy

By NL on 01/09/2010. 7 Comments

Sorry. After a moment when it looked like we might get back to housing law, the LSC has interrupted again. And it is almost as if the LSC reads NL!

Following our post here on the LSC’s statement in version 2 of its FAQ for the verification exercise on ‘not being able to do the number of matter starts bid for’ and which amounted to “Oops, have you overbid? Come here, you silly, give us a hug and we’ll make it alright by dropping your requirements”, the LSC has been fiddling with its FAQs again.

The answer to Question 3.2 in version 6(!) of the FAQ, released today (1 … Read the full post

Posted in Various (non-housing). Tags: , , .

Of contracts, shifting goalposts and lawfulness

By NL on 25/08/2010. 8 Comments

[Edit 01/09/2010. There has been a further change to the FAQ discussed in this post. See the new post here]

Bear with me. This is going to be a bumpy ride.

The LSC’s terms of tender for civil contracts stated

Paragraph 15.11: “For a tender to be complete, the Applicant Organisation must, prior to the deadline, submit a tender consisting of (1) a response to the PQQ and (2) a response to an ITT (including the Mandatory Form).”
Paragraph 15.13: “The Applicant Organisation must not amend or alter any document comprising part of the tender after the deadline”
Paragraph 15.37: “The Applicant Organisation agrees to keep any tender valid … Read the full post

Posted in Housing law - All and Various (non-housing). Tags: , , .

Legal Aid contract round – In the thick of it

By NL on 23/07/2010. 9 Comments

The results of the Social Welfare Law and combined Housing/Family contract bids are slowly coming through. I am mindful that as I write this, firms/organisations in specific areas have not yet been informed whether they have a contract and if so for how many matter starts. But I have heard enough from various areas of the country and boroughs of London that suggest thats the results are going to have a dramatic impact on the shape of housing law provision. I’m sorry if this increases the already sky high anxiety of those still waiting – over two weeks after they were supposed to be informed.

I don’t propose to go … Read the full post

Posted in Various (non-housing). Tags: , , , .

Fixed Fees and CLACs – MOJ plan

By NL on 04/10/2009. 2 Comments

The Ministry of Justice has published its ‘Implementation Plan’ in response to the recommendations of the ‘Legal Advice at Local Level’ steering group. The plan is here [pdf]. The issue is principally the effects on NFP advice providers of the impact of fixed fee Legal help scheme and the introduction of CLACs and CLANs.

Notable are concerns that fixed fees don’t work for those dealing with particularly complex cases or difficult clients, with an action plan to consider varying the fixed fee scheme, and a study of potential pressures towards cherry-picking.

My jaw dropped at this, though:

We recommend that the LSC should take steps to monitor the impact of

… Read the full post

Posted in Various (non-housing). Tags: , , .
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