Report writers and other professionals

Payment rules

Prior approval must be sought from legal Aid Queensland before a practitioner may engage the services of a report writer or other professional.

Fees payable are detailed in the scale of fees relevant to the type of service provider to be engaged and the type of report sought. Legal Aid Queensland will advise the practitioner of this fee when aid is approved.

If the service provider will not accept the fee payable by Legal Aid Queensland practitioner’s should seek an alternative provider.

If the report writer or other professional is required to travel, prior approval must be sought from Legal Aid Queensland.

Cancellation/non attendance fee for report writers and other professionals

Where a party is required to be interviewed/examined by a report writer and fails to attend the interview/examination, a maximum of 1 hour at the relevant hourly rate is payable as a cancellation/non-attendance fee. This fee will be provided if the failure to attend was beyond the party’s control and not as a direct result of the solicitor’s failure to advise the party.

If a party fails to attend an interview/examination on more than one occasion, it will be rare for Legal Aid Queensland to fund more than one cancellation/non-attendance fee.

Audit requirements

The practitioner must clearly indicate in the letter of referral that the report or service is required in a legally-aided matter and the Legal Aid fee payable for the report or service. A copy of this letter must be retained on the practitioner’s file.

To assist preferred suppliers in this regard, a number of template documents are available for use in Grants Online, Elodgement, Online precedent documents.

Last updated 7 December 2015