The LSA has issued the key messages for legal aid suppliers for August 2022.
Exceptional Preparation – visibility of letters and certificates
Counsel are asked to note that where their instructing solicitor makes a request for Exceptional Preparation in criminal matters on their behalf, that any certificates and covering letters issued to counsel will be directly available to counsel on LAMS. Solicitors will not have access to same. Accordingly, counsel are asked to ensure that they carry out a check on LAMS in such cases, to ensure that they have access to their Certificates of Exceptional Preparation and covering letters.
SMS services
As advised in July 2022 key messages, practitioners are reminded that from September 2022 the Agency will no longer issue an SMS for planned LAMS outages.
Practitioners who are currently subscribed to the SMS service should take the necessary steps to unsubscribe from the service. Details on how to unsubscribe can be found in paragraph 3.2 of the July 2022 key messages.
LAMS annual reregistration exercise
The annual LAMS reregistration exercise ended on 30 June 2022 however we are yet to receive a number of supplier and business account reregistrations.
If you have not yet renewed your individual or business account then you will no longer be able to access LAMS. Practitioners are encouraged to reregister their individual supplier accounts and if you are an account administrator for your firm (all barristers are account administrators) the Agency would urge you to complete your business renewal immediately.
The following links to guidance will give you all the information that you need to complete the reregistration process.
- Circular – ‘LSA 07-22 – LAMS Reregistration of Individual & business accounts’ located within the ‘Circulars 2022’ area;
- Guidance – ‘LAMS – Reregistration manual’ located within the ‘LAMS reregistration guidance’ page, in the ‘LAMS guidance’ area;
- Guidance – ‘LAMS – Supplier & business reregistration checklist’ also located within the ‘LAMS reregistration guidance’ page, in the ‘LAMS guidance’ area.
Should you have any queries on any matter related to your reregistration please email the LSANI Registration Scheme team at RegistrationScheme@lsani.gov.uk.
What you might have missed
Please note that the Agency have published the following on the website:
LSA circular and corresponding schedule 'LSA 08-22 - High cost cases - estimated costs of any case in excess of £100,000' has been uploaded to the 2022 Legal Aid Circulars page of the LSANI Website.
Notes to editors:
Please note that printable PDF versions of the key messages are located within the 'Useful information for legal aid suppliers' page under the title 'Key messages'.
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