The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) has come under fire from the Law Society after it admitted it wouldn’t hit its target of delivering the next phase of the rollout of the new online system replacing the previous Legal Aid system hacked by criminals earlier this year.
In an update published this week relating to submitting bulk claims, the LAA said its new system would not be live in November as anticipated. Providers are advised to continue using the contingency process for the October submission, with a deadline of 17th November in order to process payments for 1st December.
The new system, known as Sign in to legal aid services (SILAS), has been developed in the wake of the cyber attack on the LAA which rendered its existing system unusable. In September it was announced the new system will be launched in three phases; Crime systems (Crime Apply, and Submit a Crime Form) were launched first, with Civil systems (Civil Apply, and the Client and Cost Management System (CCMS)), and services relating to the Controlled Work Administration (CWA) will follow shortly thereafter.
Family law professionals have told membership bodies the impact on manual systems and processes has meant they have spent much more time on cases. Richard Miller, head of justice at the Society, advised practitioners to keep notes of how much additional time they are spending on cases.
Responding to the delay Law Society vice president Brett Dixon said:
“Despite the contingency arrangements, practitioners continue to suffer the fallout of a cyber-attack which was no fault of their own. They also continue to wait for promised legal aid rate increases to be implemented. Nevertheless, it is better that the LAA has acknowledged the problems with the new system rather than ploughing ahead with launching it before it is ready.”
Speaking on the Today’s Family Lawyer Podcast Beverley Watkins, Managing Partner at Watkins Solicitors and Vice Chair of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group explained the impact on her firm and the wider legal aid community, saying the cyber attack and withdrawal of digital systems had caused enormous confusion, especially among younger staff accustomed to digital workflows. Emergency measures allowed firms to handle urgent cases, but routine work stalled, leaving many clients unrepresented. The incident has left many legal aid firms, already operating on razor-thin margins, battling for survival.
