| (a) |
in view of the dependence of the information technology (IT) system requirements on the design of the process adopted for administering legal aid, the use of IT should not be a primary focus for a full-scale consultancy study. Meanwhile, the main focus of LAD's IT system should be on securing as much benefit from it as possible for operation of existing processes;
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| (b) |
it would be beneficial for a full-scale study to explore in more detail the options for payment of legal aid services, and in particular any opportunities for achieving benefits for both LAD and the legal aid services suppliers by taking advantage of the distinctive characteristics of legal aid work, for example the ability of LAD to offer a high degree of assurance of payment, and potentially of a fairly high volume of work;
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| (c) |
there is no evidence in the literature where a formal limit is set for the number of cases that a legal aid official may monitor, nor that there are distinct benefits for cost control or case monitoring likely to flow from any particular limits that may be applied to the caseload of an individual assigned lawyer. There is no clear evidence that a specific study of caseload limits for assigned lawyers is justified, and the options for greater delegation of case management responsibility to the legal services supplier can be examined if it is decided to conduct a detailed study of alternative methods of securing the services of private lawyers [see (b) above];
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| (d) |
further examination of options for managing the acceptance of private lawyers as legal aid practitioners, and for removal of poor performers from legal aid panels, would be beneficial;
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| (e) |
it requires much effort to conduct a rigorous and objective evaluation of the contracting system as against a case-by-case assignment system. Contracting is likely to be better suited to some jurisdictions than others. It is likely that the way in which a contracting system is implemented and maintained will have a significant impact on how beneficial or otherwise it proves to be. It is recommended that if it is decided to commission a study of alternatives to the current system of assignment of legal aid work to private lawyers, and payment for it, on a case-by-case basis [see (b) above], the study should include an examination of contracting in England and Wales in order to identify certain principles that could be adopted in alternative approaches towards securing legal services by LAD; and
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| (f) |
there would be advantages in examining further the benefits of adopting an externally accredited quality standard. There would also be benefits in examining the advantages and disadvantages of adopting formal systems of audit and peer review of suppliers.
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