This is not the best track on the Editors excellent new album - "In this Light and on this Evening". It is still very good though.

Frantic morning to date with the NMS moratorium and Manchester CDS BVT looming large. We are also inviting new Costs Drafting instructions having some spare capacity for the first time in ages.

The car, puppy and Microsoft products playing up do not help.

Off to get ready for the webinar now - exciting bunch of topics for November to tell you about on Monday.

It is CDS File Review claim time again. We took our first phone query of the year about this today and can confirm as follows:

You can claim for file reviews undertaken between 1st October 2008 and end September 2009 via an FR1 form which need to be at your RO by 10th December.

There is a discussion about the imminent reduction in central costs rates on the radio right now. The head of the Association of Motor Offence Lawyers is on and has mentioned an e-petition against the proposals.

AMOLs motivation might be different to most of yours, however if you want to sign it - it is here.

One of my all time favourites, Magazine, turned up on last weeks Later (albeit somewhat more rotund than in their heyday) Since then I have been listening to all sorts of stuff from that late 70s early 80s era during the morning dog walk - which is helping with my post punk weight management!

Another LP which got played to death at that time and I still love is Waiting for a Miracle by the Comsat Angels, something I share with Mark Kermode and Simon Armitage. (The similarity of my feelings about the record is scarily close to theirs - this link is a must for readers of a similar age and inclination)

I wanted to post "Real Story" but there is no video, although it does have a still of the iconic cover discussed in the Culture show clip above.

Instead:

PS. "Sleep no More"which K & A talk about is from the album of the same name. It was the promo tour for this release that brought them to the, now bulldozed, Kirklevington Country Club (The Kirk to Teessiders) where I saw them on 20th September 1981 (That site of theirs is a mine of information)

The assertion made in this piece that there is "no new rule which says 'no additional new matter starts'" seems to belie our and others experience. As mentioned here certain of our clients are very much up against it and one, who has had an increase refused, has now no more matters starts left for the rest of the year. They have been told to refer clients on to other firms even if this means the additional cost of interpreters fees.

If you are in this situation please get in touch with us or the LAPG, especially if you have had a refusal or an increase.

Further to yesterdays consideration of things a timetable for Civil procurement, Generic CDS contracts and the BVT "Pilots" has been announced.

Key dates:

Mainstream Civil 8 February 2010 - 7 week window.

CDS BVT Pilot 4th January 2010 - auction in March 2010

Mainstream CDS 11th January 2010

Immigration 30th November 2009 - 7 week window (possible extension because of Xmas)

Those seeking our assistance should get in touch asap.

This story does not currently feature on the News page at the LSC site. The final document will seemingly be on the LSC site sometime in the near future.

Will give it a scan and an interim view when I can.

The speculation about the BVT Pilots continues. The most common opinion I come across, which has been given further credence last weeks developments, is that this is dead in the water. Others, including a client who attended one of the management training sessions, remain nervous about the possibility watching their firms disappear in an on-line auction. The LSC representatives seemed quite bullish about the project apparently.

I tend to agree with the former especially given the MoJs interventions and guess that most firms will put their hands up to the current reduced fees rather than face BVT head on. We shall see.

Just done a job of work on some Fixed Fee CCA files hence the headline for this post. There is nothing more to say on the subject.

A client firm is today seeking the first Formal Review of a decision to refuse them New Matter Starts. There does now appear to be a national moratorium and a "policy" on this is apparently being developed . We will keep you informed.

In addition to Stewart Lee on Tuesday and Stornoway tonight we got to see a long time favourite, Richard Hawley, at the Sage, Gatesheed, again on Wednesday. He was great, did most of the excellent new album including this (not quite sure why it is "the single"). Written for his wife, because he is "as soft as s*$&%e" she apparently responded with "what's for tea" when he first played it to her;

There is a whole batch of new forms, both CLS and CDS (though mainly the former) which become mandatory from November. You can see previews here.

I have not trawled them all to spot the differences, no prize on offer, however there is a document which explains this.

The one issue on which we have received additional correspondence is the new "partners declaration" on the CW1 - Legal Help form. Here is some guidance as to when this must be completed - primarily with regard to telephone of postal advice. This also contains the assertion that it will be "rare" for a firm to commence work in advance of the provision of proof of means. This is not my interpretation of Rule 2.5 but clearly one they intend to push quite hard.

Please make sure that all fee earners desks are thoroughly searched and all out of date forms are removed and ceremonially destroyed - happy burning.

Simultaneous with yesterdays post here was the announcement of a further "review" into Legal Aid by the MoJ. If you can't be bothered reading the my post the key theme is - MoJ frustration with LSC progress in delivering "reform" and the growing suspicion that they, the MoJ, can achieve more by going over the Commissions head.

If you read the second link this largely confirms these suspicions.

The "money" quote (actually the second of the 4 bullet-pointed terms of reference) reads as follows:

"Provide for effective and transparent financial management of both funds and their administration"

Don't we have this already?

I have been "stalking" this page on the LSC Website since early August awaiting the Mental Health procurement plans. Have I missed them, are they somewhere else? Let me know if this is so.

Otherwise our Mental Health clients please note we have not forgotten about you.

Catherine Baksi does a news blog on the LS Gazette website. The current top entry is entitled The true cost of legal aid cuts.

She concludes thus:

Many of these proposals appear to make it harder for vulnerable people to challenge the decisions of public bodies, including the government, and put more control in the hands of the LSC. Taken together with the other legal aid reforms, it presents a very worrying trend.

It does indeed.

In earlier entries she too has spotted the obvious current friction between the LSC and the MoJ.

She draws another conclusion which replicates a number of phone conversations I have had with clients in recent times.

The Law Society running Legal Aid again?

Car with electronic hand brake fault. Advice contained in the manual - "take it to a main dealer" - brilliant!!

We have featured these boys before. I now have their album, which I like a lot, in the car (the fact that the Independent doesn't being a bonus - yes the lyrics are a bit overwrought but they are just kids). This is the single from "Sigh no More" and comes with a Parental Advisory Warning, just in case you are going to play it, at volume, in an open plan office:

The phone continues to ring - it being contract reconciliation and POCA issues this morning to date.

With regard to the former do remember in Crime that you can request that you contract be balanced with a 7.5% "pull forward".

Andy is away in the sun, as many of you will know, and so I am dealing with significantly more phone queries. Alongside that I have just prepped tomorrows Webinar on SQM developments - its not an exciting one but will save the participants a couple of hours reading.

It has been a right mixed bag too, costs, green form scope, civil procurement, a brave young man wanting to set up his own crime firm, Court of Appeal funding for a QC and an highly interesting training enquiry.

Two of those involve firms wanting to set up new offices in the current state of play. The unintended consequence of these so called "market based reforms" does of course mean that the at present the LSC have a cold dead hand over both the CDS and CLS market. New contract requests are rejected out of hand despite any reasonable assessment of need and everything stultifies. The clients I was with yesterday teatime are regularly being asked by CAFCASS to take cases from outside their "procurement area", in a separate LA. They are doing so and obviously, and quite rightly, getting public funding - yet a request to open a new office to facilitate this - well you can guess the answer. These are not "market based" reforms they are increasingly, plainly daft.

Doing an "on demand" webinar this morning. It for a firm who missed one of last months sessions. The thought has struck me that there might be one or two of you looking of an odd point or two this month and that this might be an attractive method of plugging those gaps.

We have plenty of 1-hour session available, we have been doing this since May, so if we can help give us a ring.

Specialist Quality Mark, or Franchising as those of us a certain age refer to it, faces further change. The standard is being changed to make it more "generic" and therefore equivalent to Lexcel. This in turn will facilitate the move to "out sourcing" quality assurance auditing to Lexcel approved accreditation bodies - at a cost to firms.

This Friday's webinar will look at the changes, suggest necessary amendments and consider the move to external auditing. Book your place now.

We are practising, and adding in new songs, for a short set at al local benefit concert, on Friday 23rd October, in Boro Town Hall Crypt. We are gradually building up the number of Weller covers we do with a pipe dream of performing a full set, like his acoustic live album "Days of Speed", at some point. This time we introduce "Ever Changing Moods" and, I think, a very passable version, of this - which I think is better acoustic than in the full band form which was for some time the intro to Sky Sports premiership coverage.

We are receiving reports that requests for increases in New Matter Starts are being routinely rejected. One client has been advised by their account manager that this is indeed a national directive. This does not bode well for the turn of the year!

It also means that firms will begin to manage their starts (indeed one firm told me they were already doing this, just this morning) and, for better or worse, for loss or gain, cherry pick clients and cases. Not the best advert for the 60th Anniversary.