Client services
Every client we deal with is unique: our
ethos is to deliver a flexible and responsive service working in a way
which suits our clients best. We are engaged on a large variety of
assignments. Most of our clients utilise our retainer service (see the
panel on the right) working in partnership on an ongoing basis.
Alternatively clients may approach us to offer assistance on specific
pieces of work.
Some of our recent client assignments
have been as follows:
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Peer
Review 'Mock Audit'
We conducted a comprehensive review of this large firm's Crime and Family
files in order to provide an assessment of their likely performance at
peer review. Care was taken to ensure sampling across the firm's offices
and fee-earners and also to ensure we covered the spread of work types. A
comprehensive report was presented to the firm along with a detailed list
of recommendations and suggestions for improvement including precedent
letters and forms. The aim was to embed best practice across the firm
reducing the risk of individual fee earners negatively influencing a peer
review audit.
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Contract
Compliance Audit
This firm (now a retained client) approached us to assist with a Contract
Compliance Audit for their civil work. Their compliance with Legal Help
rules and regulations was observed to be problematic and likely to result
in a Category 3 result with potential clawback
of large sums of money by the LSC. We instituted urgent changes and the
firm achieved Category 2 status. On detailed examination of the audit
report we identified a number of flaws and submitted an appeal on behalf
of the firm; the result was a Category 1 outcome with no clawback of monies.
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Tailored
Fixed Fee Uplift Claims
One of the benefits of being a retained client is that we keep our
clients appraised of developments on a regular
basis. A simple email reminder to one of our clients resulted in them
being able to claim housing uplifts under the TFF scheme of over £5K.
This would have been left unclaimed but for a simple email and
demonstrates the beneficial impact of having a close ongoing
relationship.
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Development
of Best Practice
For this major client of ours, we agreed to develop a best practice
'toolkit' for their Family work. Following a detailed assessment of Peer
Review and SQM requirements we were able to provide the firm with a suite
of precedent client care letters, fact sheets and checklists. This
provided the firm with the confidence to be assured of success at future
audits. It has also had a major impact on client service as clients are
provided with better information about the law and procedure.
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Our retainer service ensures
our clients keep ahead of the curve in the fast-moving arena of publicly
funded services. The aim is to provide you with the confidence that your
documented quality systems are meeting the requirements of the LSC allowing
you to focus on your fee-earning. Our expertise in billing, claiming and
LSC regulations means that we are able to identify areas of underclaiming or regulation breaches helping you to
maximise your income from legal aid and avoid expensive clawbacks
by the LSC.
We provide strategic support
and advice to our clients in relation to reforms and changes allowing them
to plan ahead more painlessly and exploit any opportunities that may
emerge.
Our retainer service varies
from client to client but is generally on the following basis:
 Monthly visits
Bi-monthly visits
Quarterly visits
Depending on client
preference and visit frequency, our retainer service can cover the
following:
Update on LSC changes
Strategic advice
Office manual review/update
LSC performance monitoring e.g. KPI
Business Plan preparation/review
File reviews
Financial records
Personnel records maintenance
Monitoring of claiming effectiveness
Central registers reviews/updates
As a retained firm you have
access to unlimited advice and support via email or telephone.
There is no obligation on you
to maintain a retainer for a specific period, there is no contract and you
can cancel at any time.
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