This version of IRIS Law Business is primarily aimed at implementing the changes to Legal Aid this spring and it also includes Multi-track Cost Management to coincide with the Jackson Reforms.
Note For post-upgrade information refer to the release advisory.
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There are a number of Legal Aid changes that will affect all matters started on or after 1 April 2013. The Legal Services Commission (LSC) will cease to exist and will become the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) under the umbrella of the Ministry of Justice. Large areas of work will fall out of scope of Legal Aid. There are new fields in IRIS Law Business which are required for reporting to the LAA via the bulk up load to ensure payment.
Work Types: There are new work types for uses with the April 2013 Legal Aid Changes and it will be up to each firm to create these new work types. Unfortunately, IRIS Legal is not able to code the work types into the upgrade as our clients have differing department names.
Exemption Criteria: For Family, Immigration, Clinical Negligence and Miscellaneous categories, some work will require certain criteria to be covered by Legal Aid:
Family matters will require Domestic Violence or Child Abuse criteria.
Immigration or Misc matters will require Trafficking.
Clinical Negligence matters will require Injury at Birth.
For Clinical Negligence, exemption criteria will always be required.
Category specific codes have been set up which have to be reported, e.g. DV001, CN001. More
Exceptional Case Funding Arrangement: ECF is available for all categories of work, and in some categories, is required for all cases, e.g. Clinical Negligence, Consumer, Employment, Education, PI, Welfare Benefits. ECFs will rarely be granted and will be very much the exception to the rule meaning that these categories are effectively out of scope. In those rare cases where it is granted, there is a field to hold the reference so it can be reported on to ensure payment. Note: the ECF field will only become active if the relevant Access Point and Procurement Area codes are entered. More
Transferred Matters: Where a matter has been transferred between firms, it should be opened with the Matter Open Date as the date the matter was opened at the original firm. This determines which validation rules applies. When adding the Civil Billing module to the matter the Transfer Date should be inputted as the date the file was transferred. There is validation in place to ensure this date cannot be on or before the Open Date. The UFN date should be the one created by the original firm, although the second firm may need to alter the last three digits so the UFN is still unique to the firm. Note: the transferred date field will only become active if the relevant Access Point and Procurement Area codes are entered. More
Access Points and Procurement Areas: There are a number of minor changes to these, but the key changes are to do with an ECF matter where the Access Point and Procurement Area should be set to 20000. These matters will not show on the Matter Start Form. The exception is for transferred matters, which should use the code 30000 on the upload and matter start. Transferred matters will contribute to a firm's matter starts. Where a 20000 code is entered, the ECF field becomes active and where a 30000 code is entered, both the ECF and transferred date fields become active.
Stage Reached Codes: For Immigration, Actions Against Police, Clinical Negligence, Consumer, Employment, Mental Health, Personal Injury, Public Law and Welfare Benefits, stage reached codes are no longer required. For Family, whilst stage reached codes are not generally required, there are some new Matter Types and Case Stage Levels for work carried out in relation to mediation. More
Disability and Ethnicity: There are new codes for use with Civil Matters. As these are held at client level in IRIS Law Business, we have checked with the LSC and they can also be used when reporting Criminal matters. More
Tolerance: In effect this no longer exists. Tolerance now exists under MISC and needs to be elected under the tendering process. MISC matters are restricted to 5, irrespective of the size of firm.
Personal Injury: Personal Injury will not continue as a contracted category and the existing codes will be changed to 'Out of scope unless ECF'. There are new codes under Misc for those firms contracted for tolerance work.
Rebranding: With the change from LSC to LAA, all system generated forms are being rebranded. Laserforms are also rebranding their forms and where the form names have been changed, coding in the modules has been updated to ensure the new forms are called correctly. For those clients who still produce the CMRF, we have made amendments so that it clearly displays the new reporting fields.
Since 1 October 2011 all parties to litigation in the Commercial and Mercantile Courts have been required to file detailed Costs Management Budgets prior to the first Case Management Conference, however these rules will be implemented across the full range of multi-track cases from 1st April to coincide with the Jackson Reforms.
This release will enable users to input estimates and record time and disbursements against each stage of the case. More
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