Submitting evidence correctly to the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) can be a difficult procedure and you will often hear that claims involving electronic Pages of Prosecution Evidence (PPE) are refused. Many firms believe this is because the LAA will do anything in their power not to have to pay out, when in reality the firm submitting the claim will not have received the correct advice on how best to submit and prepare their claim.

All claims where electronically served evidence is being claimed as PPE have to satisfy an additional set of criteria laid out in the Crown Court fee guidance. These criteria exist purely to ensure proof that the evidence being claimed for has actually been served in the case before any money is paid out. 

Although most solicitors will tell you the LAA has made this process more difficult than it needs to be, most claims that are prepared properly and submitted in consideration of these criteria are processed and paid quickly. It is only when claims fail to do this that refusals start to occur. 

For example, in cases where the evidence is produced on the Crown Court Digital Case System, the LAA might consider this electronically served. In this instance, you would have to treat the evidence as electronic PPE and make sure your claim satisfies the corresponding criteria.

As professional costs draftsmen, we submit these types of claims on an almost daily basis and have a comprehensive understanding of how the LAA approaches assessing them. You can rely on our experience to advise you on the specific evidence you need to include to ensure your claim is not challenged and settled quickly.