For those who have unfortunately had to look into this, you may be aware that if you've really had enough of the years of madness and want to throw in the towel, the simple fact that they have now amended the contract means that you can terminate in response without having to give the 3 months notice otherwise required. Check out clause 25.2 of the Standard Contract: www.legalservices.gov.uk/docs/civil_contracting/100210StandardTermsFINALTOPUBLISH.pdf
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not recommending it, but if you really can't take any more and want to get out before October, looks like you can...
Of course the other important effect will be to create a September surge. There is a clear incentive for us all to get as much work started this month, and in particular send off as many certificate applications as possible. Note in the contract amendments it says that the application only has to have been RECEIVED BY the 3 October, not granted by then, so recorded delivery would seem to be the order of the day.
So I'm off to move my remaining holidays into October and do one last month opening cases at the current rates of pay, which when I started out 17 years ago I never dreamed could possibly go lower even back then. One last hurrah...
"The changes apply to work done under a certificate granted following an application made on or after 3 Oct 2011 or case start date (for all other cases) on or after 3 October 2011. The old fees and rates apply if an application has been signed by the client (for certificated work) before 3 Oct and received by the LSC on or before 10 Oct 2011.
In family cases and those housing cases dealt with under the Unified Contract the changes will apply via new contracts on 1 February 2012. The new rates can be found in the relevant payment annexes of the civil contracts. Where an application for funding is rejected by the LSC, this may have an impact on the rate payable. So make sure that application forms are fully completed and all documentation submitted."
So housing specialists working with family practitioners get 4 extra months at the old rates compared to the rest of us. That's irrational and discriminatory. How much does it cost to launch a JR again?? Anyone want to join in??
For those who have unfortunately had to look into this, you may be aware that if you've really had enough of the years of madness and want to throw in the towel, the simple fact that they have now amended the contract means that you can terminate in response without having to give the 3 months notice otherwise required. Check out clause 25.2 of the Standard Contract:
Hi Colin. Can you tell me what would happen to any work in progress if an organisation was to do the above?
Post by Colin Henderson on Sept 6, 2011 10:56:36 GMT
You would be expected to close and bill what cases you could, and transfer the rest (once you/the client or ultimately the LSC had identified another supplier). I always assumed you could bill a fixed fee for a transferred case and as such the work you had done was worth that, but Clause 26.7 states:
"Work in progress 26.7 When this Contract ends or your right to perform Contract Work in any Category of Law, Class of Work, or from any Location, ends you must immediately send us such Contract Report as we may require and Claims for all Matters and cases that are not transferring to another Provider."
Which implies that actually they will NOT pay a claim for a matter that is transferring, even if you have done substantial work. I heard LSC bods say last year they won't "pay twice" for a transferred case but have no direct experience of it. Does anyone else?
Alternatively you can get permission to work existing cases down as remainder work. Have a close look at Clauses 25 and 26.
"Which implies that actually they will NOT pay a claim for a matter that is transferring, even if you have done substantial work. I heard LSC bods say last year they won't "pay twice" for a transferred case but have no direct experience of it. Does anyone else?"
After losing a contract in one area we worked in, I asked our RM at the time about this. We wanted to finish as many cases ourselves as we could, because this seemed best for the client, but thought that this might prove impossible.
I cannot remember exactly the words used, but we were told that we would not get a full fixed fee for cases that we transferred to another provider before they ended. The implication was not that we would be paid nothing, but that we would be paid at an hourly rate (although I suspect that they would only have paid the fixed fee if that were cheaper).
In the end we managed to close everything ourselves, so we did not find out for sure.
Here is a link to a page on the LSC website with some more information on the new fees and links to detailed lists of the experts fees. I cannot see that it has been posted elsewhere and the LSC page is dated 27 October.
