Just arranged our first live performance of the year - Friday 24th April. We are working on a range on new numbers including this from Del Amitri who I once booked for an event back at college in 1984:

Off out to see some clients, to discuss some stuff, having done lots of boring admin things this morning - our online banking is having some of the problems previously faced by the LSC's.

I am also going to watch something potentially very interesting this pm - will report back.

I have put a panoramic photo of Barcelona from Park Guell, not unlike this one, as my laptop wallpaper to cheer me up.

A positive, Category 3 PR result hits my desk. It should be a 2 I think, technically if nothing else, but currently you can't make such representations.

Andy is now an accredited Lexcel consultant, more to follow.

Training places at

Newcastle 10th March

Manchester 12th March

Leeds/Bradford 17th March

Still available!

Costs queries! Had them virtually all the last 2 days. Please ring me up to talk about something, anything, else.

A couple of things have forced me to think about solicitors and IT recently. That said it is a long time since we have had an in depth look at the software available to law firms. There is currently no aggressive pressure to upgrade your systems (although I do have some interesting diagrams involving Jack, Davinder, the LSC and computers on my desk) and one guesses that this is not a top credit crunch spending priority.

All that said here is the latest Law Society Software Guide for those interested.

Interesting results at this years Brits. Obviously delighted for Elbow (seeing them in a fortnight) and Weller plus the PSBs who were such a part of the soundtrack of the 80s. Don't know Kings of Leon, Graham is very positive, and am a bit underwhelmed by Duffy, the album award especially was was way down my list.

Can only be Elbow therefore (again I know). This is from the concert with the BBC Concert Orchestra which was on BBC red button - try see it if you can truly fantastic - there is going to be a special edition CD too:

Coincidences always happen to me. I am looking at the CLA Family telephone advice tender documentation for a client and this turns up on the front page of the Gazette. Now the current procurement exercise is for something a bit different however it is motivated by the same resource, and increasingly ideological, agenda.

Read the full article here.

When Contract Compliance auditing first began we ran a successful line of defence against the deliberately slewed samples they selected. An early favourite were criminal Higher Standard Fees claims which, if assessed down to Lower Standard fees, delivered a hefty reduction and an almost certain category outcome and consequently some recoupment.

Exceptional claims contain a similar risk, though minus the extrapolation risk - you've just done 3 times the SF, lose some on assessment and get a maximum of a third of you profit costs. We costed our first exceptional Public Law level 3 case yesterday which had costs just above, some £200, the 2 times exceptional threshold. If this is reduced on taxation by about that much the firm in question stands to lose over 4 grand (once enhancements have been added in etc.)

They are fiddly to prepare as well apparently.

I spent a significant part of yesterday, when not in the car, looking at family standard fee claims. They had fallen under the microscope because of a deep red breach of the 20% Fixed Fee Margin KPI. A significant number were, unfortunately, misclaimed level 2 private law matters which would be a struggle to justify.

Andy bumped into similar problems and I had a late afternoon phone call which contained rumors of some bad fixed fee CCA audit outcomes around similar issues.

Let us hope this is not a developing pattern.

UPDATE

Appendix B of this document gives you the 14 key questions the assessors will be asking. There is an expanded explanation of the process in Appendix G. In the context of the above this makes it fairly clear that the issue at hand is "nil assessment" rather than "inaccurate reporting" the maximum sanction for the latter is an "adjustment of the payment" rather than any recoupment etc. You can confirm my reading of this especially at para. 21.

Today's Friday song is once again sparked by last nights TV watching. I did see Alison Krauss on the American Folk program on BBC 4 which was good - I love that Brad Paisly duet (which just about everyone else I know hates, the video is a bit over the top mind).

It is not that however by rather something from Joy Division because we watched the Anton Corbijn's film Control. "Unknown Pleasures" came out when I was the same age as my youngest son the health of the music scene then and now could not be more stark. You get a bit of free (office safe) John Cooper Clarke too:

More training today and next week is filling up too as I move back into mainstream work now Jayne is assuming the helm in Middlesbrough. There seems to be plenty of LSC activity at the moment too with fixed fee CCAs, KPI reports/visits and Peer Review currently featuring daily on our radar. It looks like there is another round of contract reconcilliations going on so our calculators are out too. On top of that any number of people want to have a chat about procurement strategies and the future.

Most enquiries are from firms in the LSC Northern Region from which erstwhile RD Peter Nelson has departed. The chain of command now seems to involve the National Account Director Glyn Evans. Is this change as unheralded out there as it is to us? Unsurprisingly his CV (use the above link) demonstrates a background in word of the year "procurement".

Don't follow this link until you have (mentally) listed al likely changes and components of the proposed new Prison Law scheme. It is a game both civil and criminal practitioners can play.

Then have a look and seen how many you got right.

UPDATE

This story even features on BBC radio news as I drove home yesterday evening. The coverage just about avoided the usual "fat cat legal aid lawyers" editorial slant(human rights act took the brunt of that).

I start a bit of a mini tour shortly - hopefully not to be disrupted by the weather.

Today I go over the Pennines to chat with a firm about civil procurement and early preparation then its training for the next couple of days. In-house CDS and CLS Costs courses tomorrow followed by Peer Review, back in the North East, on Wednesday. The costs courses were snowed off pre Christmas so lets hope that doesn't happen again.

What was once a Lawyers hangout on Bedford St, M'boro - The Wig and Pen - is now a somewhat shabby and loosely Irish themed pub called "Mohans". The even less inviting upstairs function room was host to 4 live acts on Wednesday night. Missed the first one taking a call from a client downstairs. The second act, Beth Jeans Houghton was pretty good as were no. 3 Peggy Sue and the Pirates (Mrs SP particularly liked them).

These boys, however, were great:

You can find out more about them here

The "picnic table" is back to celebrate 60 years of Legal Aid. (I don't have time to read the style guide so I have not displayed it here yet).

I am not generally particularly keen on "retro" design stuff but I always thought the introduction of franchise and CLS/CDS logos in its place, along with the ridiculous "public funding" nomenclature, was a costly mistake.

Is there a subliminal message about a return to some of the values of the old scheme?

Insufficient time in the day to stay on top of changes to Legal Aid? A pile of unread LSC consultations and communications building up on your desk? Too busy to get to innumerable "briefing days" or would you simply prefer and independent view?

Well once again we are running a summary course to keep franchise reps (yes I know it should be "Liaison Manager") up to speed with actual and proposed changes to the publicly funded scheme.

It will be an up to the minute review of all the issue likely to affect your firm in the near future.

Details and booking form here.

The snow seems to be having a wide ranging impact on London.

We have our heads buried in preparing the next fantastically exciting CPD event - due in mid March. Jayne has been juggling venues, Abbie (on work experience) is sorting out some Powerpoint animation problems and I am doing a first draft.

The latter has been hampered by this news, i.e. the planned criminal content is significantly reduced. At least it buys you all an extra six months.

Course details to be released tomorrow - form an orderly queue outside please - soup is available for overnight campers.

This article, about "legal aid cuts" was in yesterdays Observer in case you missed it.

Are you at work or snowed off? We are in, but watching the skies in case. So far our only confirmed shut firm is in the South happily confirming our regional prejudices. (That said my lazy neighbour has not gone to N Tyneside to work, despite clear roads).

Let us know your weather status in the comments box.