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To ensure that legal aid providers have the latest position with respect to legal aid applications and billing contingencies, and that affected parties can access the latest developments on the incident, we have created a dedicated space with contingencies and useful resources.

If you are a legal aid provider and have any concerns about any of the contingencies in place, and which are not answered on this page, please contact your LAA Contract Manager for queries about your specific circumstances. For other incident related queries not covered on this page, you can contact our Customer Services Team on 0300 200 20 20. Opening hours are 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

If you are, or have been, a recipient of legal aid and are concerned that聽you might be affected by this incident, and cannot find the information you need on this page, please contact our Customer Services Team on 0300 200 20 20. Opening hours are 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Alternatively, email the Chief聽Executive鈥檚 Correspondence and Parliamentary Engagement Team at [email protected].听

Non-incident related queries, including case specific queries, should continue to be directed to [email protected]

Contingency measures

Average Payments for Civil Representation Scheme

Due to the current portal outage caused by criminal activity, the Legal Aid Agency is unable to assess Civil Representation claims and payments in the usual way.听The LAA is invoking contingency arrangements for those CCMS users that need contingency payments whilst the portal is unavailable.

Under these contingency arrangements, CCMS users may opt to receive a temporary average payment for Civil Representation work that would otherwise be due. The first payment offer is for 2 weeks, subsequent payments will be 1 week. The weekly average will be based on previous payments made over a 3-month period.

The process to opt in to contingency and accept the payment is entirely voluntary and will run on a weekly basis, giving you flexibility to opt in each week. To opt in, you must let us know by midday each Monday to make that week鈥檚 payment run. We will review this position after running the process for two weeks.

If you do not wish to opt in, you need take no further action. However, by not opting in, you will be unable to submit claims and will receive no payment.

Payments under these contingency arrangements are not final payments. They are not made under a specific case reference and do not replace the need to submit a bill once system access is restored. They should not be posted against individual accounts on any of your own case records. They will require balancing and netting after the fact when system access is available again. For more information, please refer to the (PDF, 372 KB, 12 pages).

Following systems restoration these payments will be recouped. A staggered recoupment process will begin when systems have been operational for 2 weeks. This will allow time for bill submissions and receipts of payments and minimise risks of deficits forming on accounts. If you opt in you must sign a declaration that confirms you are agreeing to the terms of the recoupment and that you will retain records of claims which are due to be submitted and provide these to LAA upon request. You should not opt-in if you do not have sufficient claims to cover the payment. The (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 692 KB) is available on 188体育.

An email was sent to providers on Wednesday 28 May, confirming the amount payable for their account.

To opt into these contingency arrangements, CCMS users should download and complete the declaration form from LAA鈥檚 website and send it to [email protected] providing the Provider/Counsel Account Number and name of the account. The CCMS user鈥檚 email should be sent from an official office account so that it can be verified.

Consideration should be given as to whether contingency is right for a user鈥檚 circumstance. If you believe your claims to be billed significantly exceed this payment and it will cause considerable hardship, please contact your contract manager or for members of the independent Bar, please contact the above email address.

Crime billing

Graduated fee (LGFS and AGFS) claim assessment has now recommenced, and payments will begin next week. Please continue to submit bills via CCCD in the normal way. We have already communicated contingency arrangements for CRM4s, CRM5s and CRM7s.

Civil applications

To apply for either a new civil legal aid certificate, a prior authority, or seek an urgent amendment to an existing certificate (including for both High Cost and Non-High Cost Family):聽

If providers cannot utilise delegated functions and have an imminent court hearing they can contact the LAA Customer Support Team on 0300 200 2020 to outline the urgency, and what work needs to be done. They will then obtain a contingency reference number and will be directed to complete the relevant manual application form, adding in the contingency reference number and emailing it to [email protected] where they will receive a decision by return email.

At the present time only applications that fit the above criteria will be processed.听

To register a case as a High Cost Family case providers should email [email protected]鈥痺ith supporting evidence.

Crime applications

Whilst the Portal is unavailable providers will be unable to gain a date stamp for applications. When the Portal becomes available providers will be invited to complete applications as normal and indicate in the 鈥楩urther Information鈥� section that they were unable to submit their application and the date that they would have submitted it but for the outage. LAA caseworkers will backdate representation orders to the requested date where applicable.

Note that during this contingency only, we will backdate all applications (including indictable only) to the date that they would have been submitted had the portal been available.听 Once Crime Apply becomes available, we will revert to the existing backdating arrangements as set out in CLAM.

Crime Lower and Legal Help monthly submissions

Where providers have not yet submitted their April CWA submissions (due by 20 May), they should email the Reconciliation team [email protected] with their total monthly submission value for their April submission by 20 May. This should be a global amount for each submission which the provider normally makes on CWA. When CWA is available, the submissions should then also be submitted via the system, to allow them to be reconciled.

CRM4

Prior authority applications (CRM4s) cannot currently be submitted on the portal.

• Urgent CRM4 applications can be sent via email to [email protected].
• Please complete the PDF version of the .听聽Please note that this is an old version of the CRM4, but the required information is the same. The CRM4 should be submitted along with the usual documentation, including the quote from the expert. A decision will be provided to you via email.

If you experience any difficulties with this process, please contact [email protected]. Please also see the attached guidance on editing a . CRM4 appeals can be submitted in the usual way to [email protected].

CRM5

• Please complete the PDF version of the Application for Extension of Upper Limit form (). Due to changes in the CRM5 process over the years, the most recent PDF is from 2009. Since then, there have been some changes in terminology and scope.
• Please ignore any references to Prison Law or parole hearings.
• Wherever it reads CDS1/2/3/5, this is the old terminology for CRM1/2/3/5.
• Please include a breakdown of hours and hourly rates in the box on page 3.
• Please complete all other sections as usual.
• If you are requesting a disbursement, please attach a copy of the quote to your email. If there is any other information you would like to submit, please also attach it to your email.
• Please send a completed copy of this form to [email protected].

If you experience any difficulties with this process, please contact [email protected]. Please also see the attached guidance on editing a PDF.

CRM5 appeals can be submitted as usual to [email protected]

CRM7

• Please submit non-standard Magistrates鈥� claims (CRM7s) via paper.
• Please send your CRM7 and file of papers to:

Responding to automated requests for further information regarding CRM7 forms submitted before the outage:

While the portal is inaccessible, you will not be able to upload the further information we require. If you would like to submit your claim via paper, please send a paper copy of the CRM7, your file of papers and the requested further information to:聽

Alternatively, you can wait until the portal is accessible and upload your further information then. We are unable to accept further information sent to us via email.

CRM 18As

There is no change to the submission of CRM18 claims.

• Submit CRM18 (Police Station Escape Fee) claims to the Magistrates鈥� Billing Team in Nottingham.

Email [email protected]

Alternatively, you can send by post or DX:

CRM18s cannot be accepted via Secure File Exchange.

All of the necessary forms can be found at

Systems updates

The LAA鈥檚 online services were taken offline on Friday 16 May, and will remain offline until further notice. We apologise for any inconvenience caused by the ongoing works.

Further resources

• FAQ
• Minister Sarah Sackman MP Legal Aid Agency Cyber-security incident - 19 May 2025聽
• News Story: Legal Aid Agency data breach 鈥� 19 May 2025聽聽