Preferred supplier newsletter—August 2020
This month:
Changes to LAQ’s Executive Management Team
In early July, Anthony Reilly resigned as LAQ’s CEO to take up the role as the Queensland Ombudsman. This departure has seen the following movements within LAQ’s Executive Team:
- Nicky Davies, Acting Chief Executive Officer
- Peter Delibaltas, Acting Legal Practice senior director
- Kerry Bichel, Acting Criminal Law Services director
Expensive case requests
Grants are experiencing some delays in expensive case request funding. To help ensure your request is processed in a timely manner, please note the following:
- When submitting a request for expensive case funding please ensure the current request form has been fully completed and relevant financial material provided with the request. Financial eligibility must be confirmed for all expensive case requests. If we have to follow up for information, this results in delays.
- Substantive grants issue for proceedings — for example Supreme Court Examine depositions etc. This is the client’s substantive funding — that is they are funded for the proceedings. If you request additional funding through an expensive case your request relates only to the nature and extent of funding available. If an expensive case request is waiting to be determined it is not appropriate to advise the court that the client is not legally aided.
- Very early requests for expensive case funding submitted prior to any review of the brief will result in requests for further information.
- Assessment relies on the information you provide. Generic statements such as “review/consider brief — 100 hours” are not sufficient to support a request. It should be clear from your request what work has been completed and what is anticipated.
- Where circumstances change (additional material is disclosed etc) a further request can be made for additional funding.
Financial management enquiries (payment of accounts/retrospective contributions/appeals cost board matters etc)
All inquiries relating to paying accounts, retrospective contributions and appeals cost board matters should be made directly to the Compliance and Financial Management Team on email LAQGrantsCompliance@legalaid.qld.gov.au or 3917 0996.
Client enquiries
If you need to provide contact details to your clients for grants related inquiries, please provide the following:
Grants email contact for clients: grants@legalaid.qld.gov.au
Grants telephone contact for clients: 1300 383 900.
Thank you for your continued support in providing services to our clients. Please contact the senior grants officer for your team if you have any queries about the above information.
MHRT Panel — Vaccine Preventable Disease evidence form
For practitioners who are on the MHRT panel, please remember that the Vaccine Preventable Disease (VPD) screening requirements need to be satisfied by 30 September 2020 for those practitioners who want to continue doing the MHRT work beyond that date. In situations where a serology test does not demonstrate immunity to one or more of the VPDs, you will need to provide proof that the relevant vaccinations have been administered. This may require undertaking a course of vaccinations, and there is generally a minimum period of time that is prescribed between each of the courses. Please also note that proof of immunity to whooping cough (pertussis) can only be established by attaching evidence of receiving the vaccination within the last ten years — it cannot be demonstrated through a serology test. Practitioners are therefore encouraged to attend to satisfying the VPD requirements well in advance of 30 September 2020. The Vaccine Preventable Diseases Evidence form sets out the relevant requirements and explanations. Once you have attended to satisfying the VPD requirements, please provide the relevant documentary evidence to Kate Volk.
Request for duty lawyers to act as agents
Information setting out the circumstances in which firms can request a duty lawyer appear as an agent are set out on the website. A copy of the duty lawyer agent request form must be used.
Duty lawyers can only appear for defendants who are in possession of a grant of legal aid. A duty lawyer cannot appear as agent where a legal aid application has been lodged as the Bail Act only allows for a practitioner who is in contact with their client to appear on their behalf, otherwise a warrant should issue for failing to appear.
Proforma invoices
A reminder that proforma invoices are to be submitted within three months from the end of the relevant proceeding and/or finalisation of the relevant matters. This is a requirement under the preferred supplier agreement, clause 6.4(b)(i) and allows LAQ to manage the budget.
When submitting a proforma invoice, the practitioner must provide all the information requested on the account otherwise payment may be delayed while the information is obtained.
LAQ endeavours to make payment on proforma invoices between 7–14 days from the date they are submitted. Fees are paid to solicitors and barristers on a Tuesday via a weekly cheque run or by direct deposit (electronic fund transfer) into the practitioner’s account. LAQ endeavours to make the payment of an account in the first EFT seven days after the account is lodged. Accounts are paid in the first available cheque run seven days after the date they are submitted. If an account was received less than seven days before Tuesday it will be paid the following Tuesday.
For more information about LAQ’s fees and payments, please see the Grants Handbook.
LAQ publications and resources
Did you know all our publications and education resources are free and can be viewed or ordered online.
CPD events
A list of all upcoming events hosted by the Supreme Court Library Queensland can be viewed here.