This will be my last post this week - though I will try and get the others to do some - as I am off to Barca again.

Oh and by the way there is a controversial legal drama starting tonight.

As ever the morning is sprinkled with telephone enquires and equally predictably they include the new PACE standard fee scheme. The last one involved an example straight out of the grid at section 14 of this document. I am not trying to put people of giving me a ring but it is certainly worth printing a copy off for future reference (if your printer works unlike mine).

Sorry that there has been loads on training here recently but once again I am away today to do some work on a, hopefully, exciting training programme for the Autumn. That means that unless you want a grant for a new trainee or want to ring me about Duty rota appeals, there is only a Friday song today. This is a real blast from the past which I am trying to work out for our next live performance in Yarm on July 29th. (I can't find a tab and it is difficult to do on a single guitar so any thoughts gratefully received).

Black -

We have trained and trained and trained on the October changes to the Civil scheme and the January changes in Crime. Both course have been about a popular as any we have run in recent years, as firms try to adapt to the standard and graduated fee schemes.

In addition to the full, formal, technicolour experience we have also been doing some small group hands on sessions with billing staff which have been very warmly received. This has prompted us to make these short sessions available on a wider basis. So if this might be of use in your firm give Sandra a ring.

I am this morning reminded of this post following a conversation with a client currently hosting the largest on-site gathering of LSC staff in recent years.

I wonder what the collective noun for such a grouping is?

Recent training courses have indicated the beginnings of claims being considered for Level 2 Family Public Law standard fees.

This claim for "negotiation" can be made when acting for a parent, or someone with parental responsibility, in S 31 proceedings when the Local Authority has provided written notification of their intention to issue proceedings. It seems that the first batches of such letters have now been issued.

Last week the problem was the lack of the Local Authority number required for final reporting on the CMRF on what was assumed to be the appropriate standard letter. Todays correspondent draws my attention to the structure of the letter and provides confirmation from the LSC that this indeed will justify a Level 2 claim. From his outline it seems to me that one of the key phrases is "gateway meeting". If you want further information give us a ring.

CDS suppliers will no longer need to report travel time on the CDS 6 for police station and Carter standard fee cases from the 1st July. Waiting must still be reported on both claims and must still be time recorded (read the release though because as ever there is room for confusion).

For CLS suppliers there may be some scope for applying for more matter starts in July. Watch this space for further details of the bid round.

Given the announcement of the waving in of the new improved LSC Offline billing scheme Steve requests the following largely because of the lyrical resonance of the first line.

I missed this letter in the Gazette a couple of weeks ago. It questions the fairness of cost appeals dealt with by the Newcastle office. Today the
LSC reply.

We too have raised issues concerning these single in camera adjudications in the past.

I hope that this is going to become a continuing series. Following hard on the heels of Mondays UCC Application Appeal result we have received news of a second positive outcome. Though less involved in this one, we didn't write it just gave some 'phone advice, it is still cheering to see firms being given the benefit of the doubt.

There are now only the Duty Solicitor scheme allocation appeal results outstanding.

Just had a conversation with a very disgruntled reader in Liverpool 5 pages short of the PPE cut off for his particular case - "underweight" rather than "overweight" in JRS CCLF jargon. He is now on a search for the extra pages of served evidence.

If you are still a little wobbly on this and the PACE scheme (confusion down south identified yesterday) and want a bit of help we can come out and do some in-house training you know.

LSC "Offline" is due to go back Online in October almost a full year since the first attempt. This time they are going to implement in a staged basis is 6 distinct "waves". The first 2 advanced waves will essentially be pilots with selected firms in the South West and London followed by three "re-launch" waves beginning in October and ending in February.

For those in the north you have the benefit of being in the final wave so it should work by then!

Would it be cruel to run a sweepstake on the likely final date of this timetable?

We have been receiving a steady flow of billing questions in recent days - todays first is to do with Mental Health case stage codes. These are of course essential to being correctly credited with standard fees for the work done on any particular case. They can be found in the following document.

We have the result in on the first of the Unified Criminal Contract appeals we are involved in and it is a win. The real victory is however for common sense however. The circumstances, outlined here, involved the alleged lack of an SIF 1 form in the allied franchise paperwork for a new CDS applicant.

What a nice way to start the week.

The new Weller album, 22 Dreams is great. It is a real mixed bag of stuff, some pretty adventurous, and is in effect a double album for just £9. That said it has struggled for air time in competition to Chatham County Line who I discovered in the following performance on a largely poor season of "Later". I think I will be finding out where Gateshead Little Theatre is later in the year.

It will be Steves choice next week.

I have hopefully resolved a disagreement between differing parties in a care case as to the definition of "advocates meetings". Various views were expressed including one from the District Judge who had received some "cascaded" training.

The LSC define such events as being separately chargeable as part of your Advocacy claim when they are "as set out in the protocol".

The protocol discusses these at two points, 4.5 and 5.2. The former is a meeting before the Case Management Conference and the latter before the Pre Hearing Review. There is no indication that these require specific directions and are time-tabled into the standard process.

I hope this wider airing of the issue assists.

As indicated below there are three of us in the throbbing heart of the JRS empire - the Queensway office - today. From July however there will always be 3 residents of the 'Boro office when Graham joins the team to expand our Civil Cost Drafting Service.

Give us a ring if this is of any interest.

Steve is here for the day working on the new CDS 6 Wizard (he has become a fully fledged Visual Basic programmer today!).

Yes that's right you will have to switch to an new one when reporting July claims in August. If you report via your accounts software you will need to check that your suppliers can update your systems by this date also.

All CDS suppliers will have to report electronically from this date either via an XML file (our Wizard produces one of this) or by utilising the LSC's own "bulkload spreadsheet".

Note that you will now not be able to report any claims completed in the month you are making the submission e.g. no work completed in August can appear on your July submission which you are making by the August 20th deadline.

We will be releasing this new version shortly so watch this space.

With no July festival bookings this year I have decided to broach the thorny subject of profitability and Legal Aid. The new standard and graduated fee schemes have prompted me to dust off, review and largely rewrite two courses we have not run for a number of years now. Recent training events have also convinced me that a significant number of fee earners have, as yet, not woken up to the full commercial significance of these changes so - if you have not got a better holiday or live music event pencilled these two dates might be the next best thing.

The post below was Disclosure's 1000th. This is an interesting milestone, along with next months third birthday.

I wonder if the 2000th will also be about contract reconciliation?

Further to this story last Friday I now have one such financial statement in front of me. This clearly contains, even to a casual observer let alone an anorak like me, elementary mistakes which must put the reconciliation data out at least by a 6 figure sum.

I would certainly advise requesting and checking your statement in this light.

I am always cheered by a a good result and have had one today in the form of a Category 3 Peer Review result being lifted a category to 3. The length of this process (6 months in this case) remains problematic and I retain concern over the general efficacy of the process - representations included.

Nonetheless something nice to go with the weather.

We seem to have been mentioning CLACs and CLANs quite a bit recently and here is another one from last weeks Gazette which makes some interesting points.

Not sure I agree with the Commissions "less duplication in effort" justification for joint Local Authority funded schemes or strategically whether putting all the eggs into the basket of ever changing LA programmes is wise either. We shall no doubt see.

We chanced upon this lot on the "Up and Coming" stage at Middlesbrough Music Live last week. Good varied set - really enjoyed them (plus they come from Gods own City) - so have a listen:

Good Girl by LazyBaby from Mike Walker on Vimeo.

If you are a young person and understand myspace you can find their page here.

We have today discovered that the Commission have some surprisingly helpful financial statements. These are contained in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets (the crime one of which wont open up on my Mac) and show quite a bit of claims history.

If you want to know what information they are basing your contract payments/reconcilliation upon, and you should, you might want to give your Account Manager a ring.

Lets re-open this debate - is becoming a Peer Reviewer a useful, supportive contribution to the Legal Aid scheme or does it represent collaboration with an unfair supplier management tool?

If you think the former and want to become one there is a recruitment round taking place.

Pay is £375 a day.

As mentioned yesterday we have been included in this list of approved CLAC and CLAN consultants.

We await your calls.

(By the way we have offered free telephone advice throughout the 12 year history of JRS - a service many of you use).

When SQM replaced LAFQAS we replaced simple "Family Trees" with an IT based equivalent which we call the "Staff Plan". The latter was a one side of A4 paper document the latter a multi-functional Excel work book summarising all the key personnel information required by the Quality Mark and which has been universally judged "compliant in the preceding years.

Perhaps as a result of recent difficulties with IT, but nonetheless in direct contradiction with the current "Transformation" proposals, a client firm has now been asked to revert to a paper family tree. Ah progress.

Well we can continue to do CPD training for another year after confirmation that the course monitored was "very good" (I thought I was brilliant). This in the same week that we are confirmed on the Law Society list of approved CLAC and CLAN Consultants. I have to say I think the former is more likely to keep me busy than the latter not least as I can see the piles of course notes for in-house courses building up on the desk opposite.

Do firms still get a printed copy of Focus? Here is number 56 .

It confirms our guess that there will be an Autumn (October) re-launch of "LSC Off-line" and has a "pull out Civil Road Map" plus loads of commentary on the LS/LSC settlement.

Now I'm back to CDS Contract appeals - Duty Rota issues today.