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Assessment of costs will take place under the normal paper process whereby a bill of costs is

drafted and submitted to court for taxation. Once approved you should bill these costs using

CCMS.

Firms are expected to use the CCMS rules engine to breakdown Advocacy under FAS into the

relevant entries. Only summary level figures are allowed on profit costs and disbursements

The screenshots below show a step by step to the key sections of the bill creation and

submission stages on CCMS for court assessed claims. You should have the bill of costs (and

EX80) to hand when completing the submission

Please remember to submit your case outcomes for all proceedings so that the final bill option

is available before final submission to the LAA. Please check the scope of the certificate to

ensure work claimed is within the dates and limits before submission to the court.

Counsel Fees do not need to be detailed anywhere on a court assessed claim unless you are

claiming on behalf of Counsel (in Non-Family cases only)

DRAFT CCMS PROVIDER:

COURT ASSESSED BILLS GUIDE

Initiate the billing process by searching for the case you wish to bill against through

Cases and Application section.

Click Search then select the case from the search results

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Once in the Case Overview Screen; scroll down to the table of Available Actions

and click on Billing.

If Outcomes have been submitted then the proceedings showing will be at a

status of ‘Outcome’. Please ensure this is the status for all proceedings so that a

final bill option is available.

Next once in the Financials screen click on the Create Bill option at the bottom of

the screen.

This will create a bill in draft form which can be saved and returned to at a later

date if required

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The following questions should then appear in sequence; clicking next after

answering each question is answered:

Provider Bill Type – Solicitor Final from the dropdown (or interim if

applicable)

Client has a Financial Interest – Yes or No

NB: Please see quick guide on how to create a bill if the client does have a

financial interest and you wish to send a copy of the bill before submitting to

the LAA

Next you will be asked if the bill has been assessed or will be assessed by the court.

Answer ‘Yes’ to follow the court assessed bill route. Answer ‘No’ for all other LAA

Assessed claims

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On the ‘Multiple Fee Scheme Bills’ screen you have two options.

You must tick ‘Yes’ to bill for disbursements; as this will activate the ability to bill at a

summary level for costs claimed. The court assessments options will appear in the

disbursements screen. This will also allow you to bill the disbursements claimed on an

item by item basis should you wish to do so.

CCMS will allow you to bill for advocacy broken down into individual items. Please use

this option for all cases under the Family Advocacy Scheme. To activate these screens

tick ‘Yes’.

Court Type, Change of Solicitor and Client status

Next you should be asked for the Court Type where the matter concluded. Select

the relevant court from the drop down menu and click ‘next

You will then be asked questions about the case itself depending on the

proceedings; the client party status, number of clients retained and whether

there has been a change of solicitor on the case.

Answer ‘Yes’ to the first question where you are the only firm and then ‘No’ to

the second question

Further questions will then appear about the client and these should be

answered using your file and following the prompts

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You will next be directed to the fixed fee screen (CPGFS/PFLRS) or the

Prescribed Hourly rates screen

This screen should be removed to access the relevant summary level screens.

Do this by clicking ‘Remove’ at the bottom of screen. Screenshots below show

where you should be before clicking ‘Next’

At this stage you may follow the process through and detail your work item by

item for profit costs. You should complete the net costs

You can at this stage input items line by line for profit costs and utilise the rules

engine for work done also. Please see Assessed Bills quick guide for details on

this process

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Family Advocacy Scheme

The following questions relate to FAS. Firstly asking if you wish to escape

FAS due to less than 24 instruction. Click ‘No’ if not applicable

Please then select the aspect to which the FAS work relates to. You may

select multiple aspects if the matters covers more than one proceeding.

Private Law and Domestic Abuse for example

Once selected; click next to access FAS Hearing Unit Screens

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FAS Hearing Unit Entry Screen:

Enter the date of the hearing (xx/xx/xxxx)

Select the Activity Type; Hearing Unit(s) or Final Hearing day(s)

Select the court/judge where the matter was heard

Enter Fee Earner name and VAT rate

Click ‘Yes’ for any Bolt-on’s allowed from AAF’s (Advocates Attendance Forms)

Click ‘Add’ for additional hearings or ‘Next’ when done

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FAS Non-Hearing Unit Screen:

Used to enter Court Bundles for the hearings claimed on the previous screen

Ensure you enter the same date as the hearing the bundle relates to

Exceptional Travel claimed in this screen also. This should again match a hearing

entered in previous screen

Complete Aspect of Work, Court/Judge, VAT and Fee earner

Click ‘Add’ for additional bundles or ‘Next’ when done

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Disbursements Screen:

Used to enter a breakdown of each Disbursement incurred line by line if you

choose to

Enter Date of Invoice, Type of Disbursement, Aspect of Work, Net Amount of

Invoice share, VAT and Fee earner

The option exists under this section to enter the hourly rates incurred by an expert

if applicable however this field is not mandatory

Click ‘Add’ to enter each Disbursement line. Please see Point 13 of this guide before

clicking ‘Next’

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Entering Summary Level costs (Profit Costs, Disbursements, Costs of Assessment Only)

From the Activity Type dropdown in the Disbursements screen choose either

Profit Costs Summary, Disbursements Summary or Costs of Assessment LA

Enter each summary entry as a separate line; click ‘Add’

Costs of Assessment only relates to those costs deemed as such. Please see

electronic handbook for full details.

Other costs detailed in Box C on EX80 not deemed to be Costs of Assessment

should be claimed as Profit Costs

Click ‘Next’ when done

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The ‘Expert Declaration’ follows next to confirm the experience/accreditation of

any experts instructed in children cases. Click ‘Yes’ to proceed

You are now required to confirm if the bill has been assessed by the court or if

this a draft in preparation for court assessment

Click ‘Yes’ only when you are ready to submit to the LAA for payment

Court Assessment date should be entered next (xx/xx/xxxx)

Summary Page

Shows costs that CCMS has calculated to be submitted.

Double check these figures against your file to see if this what is expected

Click ‘Confirm’ to move to next stage

If costs are not correct; still click ‘Confirm’ but you can go back into the bill for

corrections

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Create a Bill - Bill Details Screen

The Bill status will now be at ‘Complete’

At this point you can either; Click on ‘Request Draft Print’ which will send a

notification showing a PDF breakdown of the bill in a standard format

You should do this before bill submission as you cannot do this again once

submitted to LAA for payment

Click on ‘Bill Details’ if you wish to make amendments to the bill

Click on ‘Submit’ if you are ready to submit for LAA consideration

Click on ‘Cancel and return to Financials Summary’ should you wish to leave the

bill at its present status in draft form

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You will then receive a confirmation that costs have been submitted

If your submission appears to get stuck do not press ‘submit’ again without

checking if a bill is now already with LAA to avoid duplicates

A notification will then be sent to the person who created the bill to upload

documents

Document Request Notification Best Practice for Court Assessed Bills:

Documents where possible should be uploaded in black and white and on a

single upload

What we need on a document request for Court Assessed Bills:

Assessment certificate

Bill of costs

Disbursement list, numbered and cross-referenced against the vouchers, court orders, ledgers. This schedule to be used if the summary level for disbursements utilised

Applicable court orders

Any explanatory notes (like a solicitors’ covering letter)