{"id":67395,"date":"2016-02-08T15:15:23","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T15:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=f9eb3d083f4b31a2b59b0d5c7999a5c0"},"modified":"2016-02-08T15:15:23","modified_gmt":"2016-02-08T15:15:23","slug":"news-story-crime-news-avoiding-rejects-under-agfs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=67395","title":{"rendered":"News story: Crime news: avoiding rejects under AGFS"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>We need your help to bring down the number of claims being rejected under the Advocates\u2019 Graduated Fee Scheme (AGFS).<\/p>\n<p>This will help us to build on improvements which have already led to reductions in the number of outstanding claims.<\/p>\n<p>These are now at the lowest level since the AGFS team took over responsibility for bill paying.<\/p>\n<p>The majority of AF1s are now being processed within 7 working days with payments being received in 20 working days.<\/p>\n<p>Below are the top 3 areas for claims being rejected and what you can do to avoid this happening.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"only-instructed-advocate-should-claim\">1. Only Instructed Advocate should claim<\/h3>\n<p>The claim will be rejected if the claim is in the name of anyone other than the Instructed Advocate (IA). In practice, this means that for representation orders dated:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>on or after 5 May 2015 \u2013 the instructed advocate is the one attending either the main hearing or the first day of the trial<\/li>\n<li>before 5 May 2015 the instructed advocate is the one who attending the plea and case management (PCMH) hearing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 id=\"check-if-we-require-copy-of-representation-order\">2. Check if we require copy of representation order<\/h3>\n<p>If the representation order is dated before 1 August 2015 you need to make sure that all pages of the representation order are submitted with your bill.<\/p>\n<p>If the representation order is dated 1 August 2015 onwards the AGFS team will be able to check our systems for these details.<\/p>\n<p>There are some exceptions and you will need to consider whether representation orders still need to accompany your claim. These exceptions are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>cases where one defendant has transferred from one provider to another will require copies of both current and initial representation orders <\/li>\n<li>cases where the court agrees multiple advocates are required <\/li>\n<li>circumstances where the Crown Court retains authority to issue representation orders \u2013 breaches, bench warrants, contempt of court and noting brief  <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 id=\"claims-must-be-signed-by-ia-before-submission\">3. Claims must be signed by IA before submission<\/h3>\n<p>Signature \u2013 make sure the claim is signed by the Instructed Advocate before submission. <\/p>\n<p>If you have any queries regarding any of the above use the contact details below.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"further-information\">Further information<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/crown-court-fee-guidance\">Crown Court fee guidance<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/guidance\/claim-for-criminal-legal-work-under-graduated-fee-schemes\">Claim for criminal legal work under graduated fee schemes<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:advocates-fee@legalaid.gsi.gov.uk\">Email: advocates-fee@legalaid.gsi.gov.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>0115 852 6000 (lines open 9am to 1pm)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Advice on reducing the number of rejects for claims under the Advocates\u2019 Graduated Fee Scheme (AGFS).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67395"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67395\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}