Legal aid billing clerks play an important role in the legal system. They ensure that law firms are paid for essential services provided to publicly funded clients. ARC Costs regularly assist law firms and solicitors in the recovery of their legal aid costs in all types of cases, including family, civil and criminal cases.

Contact us today to find out how we can assist your law firm.

What Is a Legal Aid Billing Clerk?

A legal aid billing clerk is responsible for preparing, submitting, and managing claims for payment from the Legal Aid Agency under various legal aid schemes. These clerks work in external legal costs firms, as well as law firms that undertake publicly funded legal work, especially in areas such as criminal defence, family law, housing, immigration, and mental health.

Their job combines detailed knowledge of legal aid rules with financial and administrative expertise. Mistakes in billing can result in delayed payments or financial loss to the firm, making accuracy and compliance non-negotiable.

An Overview on Legal Aid

Legal Aid in England and Wales is governed primarily by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO). This Act significantly reduced the scope of legal aid but retained it for critical areas such as criminal law, some family law cases, and immigration detention.

The Legal Aid Agency (LAA), an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice, administers the legal aid budget. It sets out billing procedures, rates, and audit requirements. Legal Aid Billing Clerks must work within the constraints of:

• Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations
• Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations
• LAA’s Standard Contract Terms
• Case-specific guidance, including the Costs Assessment Guidance

Each type of legal aid (e.g., criminal, civil, family) has its own billing rules and payment structures. Some cases are paid under fixed fees, while others are billed hourly, requiring detailed time recording.

Recovering Costs from the LAA

In cases involving legal aid, a detailed assessment order is often issued, allowing Solicitors to seek reimbursement from the LAA, unless an inter-partes costs order has been granted. If a final order is not issued, the legal aid certificate must be discharged to enable the assessment of legal aid costs.

To recover costs, Solicitors must quantify their expenditure, for both profit costs and disbursements, and submit Payments on Account (POAs) if the case is ongoing, or interim bills (if one aspect has concluded) or final bills (if the case is fully concluded) for completed work through the LAA’s online billing system (CCMS).

The Legal Aid Agency enforces strict invoice and costs submission guidelines, and we would always recommend the assistance of a costs expert to submit your costs claims online. 

Our Costs Draftsmen and Billing Clerks can provide assistance to ensure accurate and proper submissions, and high levels of rejections can impact on legal aid KPIs, which may trigger more frequent reviews of a firm’s performance by the LAA.

Submitted bills are scrutinised by the Legal Aid Agency for compliance with all guidelines. Once accepted, the agency may request evidence supporting the solicitor’s work, including court documents and invoices, before making payment.

Whilst some solicitors may recover costs for all completed work, the LAA may apply reductions if they find the claimed amounts to be inaccurate or unreasonable.

Exceptional Costs Billing

Whilst the CCMS login does allow for manual entry of exceptional costs claims on a line-by-line basis, submitting an interim or final claim for costs on a certificate this way can be quite tedious. We recommend utilising external third-party software to streamline the preparation of any exceptional costs claim based on hourly rates.

These claims can then be exported into a CCMS-friendly XML format and a trial upload can be submitted through the ‘Pricing Upload’ option on CCMS. This trial upload enables identification and correction of any errors without impacting your LAA contract. Once approved, a formal submission of the exceptional costs claim can be made, and the LAA typically processes the claim within 1 to 2 weeks.

Common Billing Challenges

Billing for legal aid is rarely straightforward. Clerks must navigate several challenges, including:

Evolving Rules

Legal aid billing rules change frequently, often with little notice. Clerks must stay updated via LAA bulletins, training, and forums.

Complexity of CCMS

The LAA’s online billing portal, CCMS, has been criticised for being unintuitive and time-consuming. Glitches and system outages can disrupt workflow.

Rejected Claims

Even well-prepared claims may be rejected, often for reasons as minor as typos or formatting errors. Rejections delay cash flow and require time-consuming appeals.

Cash Flow Pressures

Delays in payment from the LAA can affect the financial stability of a firm, especially smaller practices. The clerk’s role in timely and accurate billing is critical to keeping the firm solvent.

What can a Billing Clerk from ARC Costs Assist With?

The duties of a Legal Aid Billing Clerk go well beyond submitting forms. Their core responsibilities include:

File Review and Case Assessment

Billing clerks analyse legal files to determine which elements of work are claimable. They check for eligibility, scope of work covered by the funding certificate, and compliance with contractual obligations.

Time Recording and Evidence Collation

They ensure accurate time recording by caseworkers and collect supporting documentation, such as letters, court attendance notes, and expert invoices, needed to justify the claim.

Preparing and Submitting Bills

Depending on the case, the clerk may need to submit:

• Claim Forms (e.g., CLAIM1, CLAIM1A for civil legal aid)
• CRM forms (e.g., CRM6, CRM7 for criminal matters)
• CCMS submissions via the LAA’s Client and Cost Management System (used for civil legal aid)

Fixed Fee vs Hourly Rate Billing

They determine whether a case qualifies for a fixed fee or requires a detailed hourly breakdown. This decision has a direct impact on the profitability of a case.

Audit and Compliance

Clerks ensure billing complies with contract terms and prepare for audits. The LAA may claw back funds or impose penalties for inaccurate or non-compliant claims.

Liaising With the LAA

They deal with LAA queries, respond to rejections, request reviews or appeals, and track payment progress. This requires understanding not only procedural rules but also negotiation skills.

Do you need a Legal Aid Billing Clerk?

Legal aid billing clerks directly impact a firm’s bottom line. Without efficient billing, a legal aid firm cannot survive, regardless of the quality of legal work it produces.

Their work ensures:

• Firms are paid fairly and promptly
• Audits and LAA reviews are passed without penalty
• Legal aid work remains financially viable
• Clients continue to receive access to justice

In this sense, billing clerks are unsung heroes. Their contribution allows solicitors to focus on legal advocacy while maintaining financial sustainability in a notoriously underfunded sector.

Our Team of Legal Aid Billing Clerks

Our team of highly skilled Law Costs Draftsmen, Costs Lawyers, and Billing Clerks regularly assist in all types of costs claims, including publicly funded and inter-partes costs claims, with our client base ranging from law firms to Litigants in Person. In inter-partes disputes, we can also assist either paying parties and receiving parties.

Using our expert costing service, we help clients maximise their recovered legal costs whilst providing expert legal advice and minimising the risk of rejected claims from the Legal Aid Agency, to ensure you maintain your KPIs.

We regularly use the CCMS system to submit legal aid costs claims and deal with all the administration on behalf of our clients and to free up the time of fee earners, thereby ensuring you can recover your maximum legal aid fees in an expeditious and efficient manner. 

It is also worth noting that in exceptional costs cases (in which a fixed fee does not apply), the cost of utilising our Costs Draftsmen preparing your Bill can be recovered from the LAA.

To find out more about how we can provide you with assistance, please get in touch with us at 01204 397302 or email our team of experts at info@arccosts.co.uk. Alternatively, please use our free chat facility to speak to an expert directly.

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