Civil news: check your disbursement vouchers for speedier payment
You will be paid faster if your disbursement voucher has all the information we need.
Checking that the details in your disbursement vouchers contains all the necessary information will help you to avoid delays in the processing of your claim.
What do I need to check?
The most common items missing from disbursement vouchers are:
-
breakdown of hourly rates
-
travel details
-
expert’s name
Why is this important?
We are unable to process claims without full supporting evidence. When this happens:
-
your payment will be delayed
-
we have to rework the claim
Why are telling us this now?
We’ve been reviewing our approach to ‘rejects’ and ‘document requests’ in the Client and Cost Management System (CCMS) since it was updated in April 2018.
The changes are helping us to be more accurate and pay you faster. But we can also see that:
-
27% of civil bill rejects through CCMS have been for disbursement vouchers missing or being incomplete
-
7% have been for notifications not being responded to
It is also important to respond to notifications as soon as possible to prevent unnecessary delays.
We are currently treating missing disbursement vouchers and ‘notifications not responded to’ as priority returns. But these may become formal rejects in the future.
Further information
Improvements to reject process to speed up payments – news story explaining new process
LAACivilClaimFix@legalaid.gsi.gov.uk – to challenge an incorrect reject
Legal aid guidance – to download ‘Electronic Handbook’ for guidance on submitting civil claims