Crime news: use Special Preparation forms to cut rejects
LF1 and AF1 forms for litigators and advocates to claim special or wasted preparation work on top of basic fees.
A new AF1 Special Preparation form is available for advocates to use where they wish to claim for special preparation or wasted preparation work.
We have also updated the existing LF1 Special Preparation form to ensure that it captures all the information we need for similar claims by litigators.
Why is a new advocates’ form needed?
Special preparation work falls outside the graduated fee schemes. At present there is no specific template available for advocates to claim for this work on top of the basic fee.
This has contributed to a high rejection rate as special preparation claims do not always contain all the relevant information needed for assessment.
Completing the form will help the advocate to provide the appropriate information and supporting documents. This will increase the prospect of the claim being processed first time and speed up processing.
Updated litigators’ form
Litigators will be familiar with the LF1 Special Preparation form. This has now been updated to specify all the relevant information required to reduce the rate of rejection and to improve the processing time.
Claims using the previous version (v2) of the LF1 will not be rejected. But we would prefer you to use the newer form (v3).
Neither the LF1 or AF1 Special Preparation form is mandatory but their use will help ensure all the required information is supplied. This will reduce the chances of rejection.
Advocates can use form online
With crime online billing being rolled out advocates now have the option of attaching the relevant form electronically with their claim and/or printing it as a coversheet if they have to send disks by DX in support of the claim. This option is not yet available for litigators.
Further information
AF1: claim for advocate graduated fees – to download ‘AF1 special preparation claim form’
LF1: claim litigator fees – to download ‘litigator fee special preparation claim form’