Crime news: changes to criminal legal aid processing in West Midlands and Warwickshire
Update on transfer of work and the use of CRM14 eForms in additional magistrates’ courts.
Providers in West Midlands and Warwickshire were given the option of using the CRM14 eForm from 8 September 2014.
This is when the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) assumed responsibility for processing criminal legal aid applications in that area.
At the same time a Criminal Applications Team (CAT) processing team in Birmingham was established. This was for providers to submit their criminal legal aid applications.
Providers have been given access to the CRM14 eForm at the following magistrates’ courts:
- Birmingham magistrates’ court
- Wolverhampton magistrates’ court
- Warwickshire Justice Centre (Leamington Spa)
- Coventry magistrates’ court
- Walsall magistrates’ court
- Dudley magistrates’ court
- Sandwell (Warley) magistrates’ court
The rest of the Midlands will move across to the LAA on 6 October as part of the national rollout programme which will continue until next year.
By June 2015 the LAA will be responsible for processing work across the whole of England and Wales.
Users registering from 2 September 2014
We have put in a fix for a technical issue which caused access problems for some users creating or amending an eForms portal account after 2 September 2014.
We believe this issue has now been fixed and these new users should be able to access the eForms portal.
Our Online Support team will be contacting all providers who have reported problems.
But if any providers experience issues with the eForm portal, please contact our colleagues in online support:
Telephone: 0203 334 6664
Email: online-support@legalaid.gsi.gov.uk