Legal Aid Agency
Starting 16 January 2017 a new way of dealing with urgent applications will be available if the Client and Cost Management System (CCMS) is not working.
What is the new process?
The change of approach involves submitting urgent applications or amendments with a contingency cover sheet containing a reference code.
It will not be sufficient to simply mark your submission contingency. You must include the contingency reference code if you want your urgent application or amendment to be processed.
You can find out more by looking at the CCMS website where there is a new Quick Guide called CCMS: Contingency Process with more detail about how the new arrangement works see link below.
How do I obtain a reference code?
If we think you qualify to use the contingency process we will issue you with a contingency cover sheet together with the necessary reference code.
When does the new process apply?
Urgent applications or amendments may qualify for the new contingency process if we have confirmed that the CCMS system is down.
We will confirm that CCMS is unavailable by placing a system outage message on our telephone lines and also on the LAA online portal.
When this happens our normal advice is for you to either consider using delegated functions or wait for the system to be restored.
Remember that the contingency process is for urgent cases only.
Does this mean paper processes are back?
We are not restoring paper processes. The contingency process is for very specific circumstances where there is an urgent need. Subsequent and non-urgent applications will have to wait until the application has been added to CCMS.
Further information
CCMS training website: scroll down to CCMS Contingency Process to download document