CCMS billing guide: getting civil legal aid bills paid first time

The Client and Cost Management System (CCMS) is used for civil legal aid certificates: applications, amendments, cost limitation increases, payments on account and final bills. Controlled work such as Legal Help is claimed differently, so this guide concerns certificated matters only.

Every bill is tied to a certificate. CCMS checks what you claim against the certificate's scope, its dates and its cost limitation, and the assessor then checks the claim against the file evidence and the Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013. A bill that looks complete in your case management system can still fail on any of those points.

Before drafting anything, download the certificate history. Note each scope limitation, any amendments and the dates they took effect, and the cost limitation in force at each stage. Work done before an amendment granted the relevant scope, or above the cost limit, is usually not payable, and reductions for that reason are hard to reverse.

If the case grew, check that increases to the cost limitation were applied for in time. Where they were not, it is better to know before the bill goes in so that time can be properly separated and the claim kept credible.

Smaller claims, and legal aid only claims in many cases, are assessed by the Legal Aid Agency itself. You enter the costs, counsel's fees and disbursements in CCMS and upload the bill and supporting documents. The assessor works from the papers, so the narrative and evidence must explain the work without you being in the room.

Where there is an inter partes costs order, or the claim is above the threshold for court assessment, the bill is usually assessed by the court under CPR Part 47, and the result is then reported to the LAA through CCMS with the final certificate or order. The legal aid only element must still be identified, so a combined bill that clearly separates inter partes and legal aid items is essential.

CCMS allows payments on account of profit costs and disbursements during the life of a certificate. They help cash flow on long cases, but every payment received must be recorded and deducted when the final bill is submitted. Unreconciled payments on account are one of the most common reasons final claims are queried or recouped later.

Keep a running schedule of each payment, its date and what it covered, and check it against the CCMS payment history before final billing.

The same problems appear again and again: dates of work outside the certificate; rates that do not match the regulations or the relevant uplift; disbursements without invoices or prior authority where it was needed; counsel's fees that do not match fee notes; vague narrative for preparation time; and duplicated items across a payment on account and the final claim.

Each of these is cheap to fix before submission and expensive afterwards. A rejected claim goes back to the bottom of the queue, and a reduced claim needs a request for review, with its own time limit, to recover the money.

If the LAA reduces a claim, you can usually ask for a review, and then an independent costs appeal on points of principle. Time limits are short, so diary them as soon as the assessment arrives. Explain each challenged item clearly, refer to the evidence and the Costs Assessment Guidance, and avoid simply repeating the original claim.