Key messages for legal suppliers – August 2019

The LSA has issued the key messages for suppliers for August 2019.

• The number of requests to ‘attach barrister’ remains significantly lower than expected.  Barristers should be reminded of the need to be attached to cases as per LSA Circular 11/19.
• When providing the case reference number to the Contact please ensure that you provide the LSA reference number (with the new prefix – see below) and not the solicitor/barrister business reference number.

• We recognise that some users continue to have issues with their PIN log-on. We appreciate that the issue is deeply frustrating and understand that the problem occurs intermittently as some users report that at times they experience it while at other they have no problem accessing LAMS. The root cause of the issue is proving difficult to diagnose.  Please be assured that our business partners are treating this as a Priority 1 issue and are actively working on it. We will keep you informed of developments.
• The number of requests to ‘attach barrister’ remains significantly lower than expected.  Barristers should be reminded of the need to be attached to cases as per LSA Circular 11/19.
• Do not share passwords and log-in credentials. 
• When submitting a Rep Higher request for High Court Bail the supplier must request cover for junior counsel under the “level of representation” section. Failure to do so will result in the supplier not being able to attach barrister to the case.
• An outcome status of “Authority determined” on an authority request means that the authority has been granted. The outcome of the granted authority can be viewed on the “Determination” tab on the request summary page.
• An outcome status of “Determined” on a payment request means the fees have been assessed. The payment outcome can be viewed on the “Assessment” tab on the request summary screen.

Queried requests

• If your request on LAMS is queried, you must respond by way of the query, ensuring that you have resubmitted your request, and not by replying to the message that notified you about the query.
• The number of requests to ‘attach barrister’ remains significantly lower than expected.  Barristers should be reminded of the need to be attached to cases as per LSA Circular 11/19. Solicitors are reminded that they should attach barristers to al new cases created on LAMS and can attach barristers to existing (migrated) criminal cases.
• We are pleased to introduce a Short Messaging Service (SMS) for LAMS users  – for full details, solicitors should refer to LSA Circular 19/19 and barristers to LSA Circular 18/19. This service provides an additional communication channel to receive time critical text messages relating to the system access and availability. Solicitors and barristers and their staff can opt into this service as follows:
  • Solicitors and staff should text SOLICITOR to 67300
  • Barristers and staff should text BARRISTER to 67300.
• In our Week 5 Dashboard we reported that some users were continuing to experience issues with their PIN log-on. We advised that the problem occurs intermittently and was proving difficult to diagnose.  Since then our business partners have applied a fix which has reduced the frequency of occurrences and a further fix is expected to be released this weekend or early next week. We will keep you informed of developments.
• There is a planned outage of LAMS for routine security patch updates from 8.00pm 23 August 2019 until 6.00am 24 August 2019, during which there will be intermittent service disruption.
• The number of requests to ‘attach barrister’ remains significantly lower than expected.  Barristers should be reminded of the need to be attached to cases as per LSA Circular 11/19. Solicitors are reminded that they should attach barristers to all new cases created on LAMS and that they can attach barristers to existing (migrated) criminal cases.
• Please sign up to our Short Messaging Service (SMS) for LAMS users – for full details, solicitors should refer to LSA Circular 19/19 and barristers to LSA Circular 18/19. This service provides an additional communication channel to receive time critical text messages relating to the system access and availability. Solicitors and barristers and their staff can opt into this service as follows:
  • Solicitors and staff should text SOLICITOR to 67300
  • Barristers and staff should text BARRISTER to 67300.
• We have deployed a fix to the system to remedy the issue with the PIN log-on. This was a problem that occurred intermittently.  We hope that the issue has now been resolved. Should users continue to experience difficulties please report them via the Contact Centre on 028 9040 8888.
• The case critical facility outlined in LSA Circular 14/19 will close on 30 September 2019. Please remember that if you have been granted a ‘case critical’ application under these arrangements you are required to submit your application retrospectively on LAMS within two weeks of the original decision. If you were granted a ‘case critical’ application under the original transitional arrangements (5–28 June as outlined in paragraphs 11–21 of LSA Circular 09/19), you must submit the application on LAMS by 6 September 2019.
• Please note if your request on LAMS is queried, when you have addressed the query, you must respond by resubmitting your request, and not by replying to the message that notified you about the query.

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