Legal aid experts

In a consultation paper, The Use of Experts: Quality, Price and Procedures in Publicly Funded Cases, the Legal Services Commission has set out its proposals to control and reduce payments to expert witnesses, which in the past year amounted to £130m in criminal, family, immigration and other civil cases. A Bond Solon expert witness survey showed that 18.5% of experts earned more than £1,400 per day in court compared to 5% in 2002, and almost three quarters earned more than £100 per hour. The paper sets out proposed guideline payment rates for experts in civil cases and outlines plans to replace the case-by-case approach to payments on account of disbursements with annual or bi-annual payments. It would replace the prior authorisation system whereby solicitors are guaranteed full payment of an expert’s fee by the LSC. Lump sum advance payments would result in solicitors not having to fund disbursements out of their own pockets and provide funds for clients who needed disbursements expending on their cases.