Legal Aid Funding Reforms Survey

This survey concerns proposed changes to fees paid to Expert Witnesses in Legally Aided cases. It arises from the recent Ministry of Justice proposals to introduce capped fee ranges, which are explained and summarized in Expert Fees Under Attack.

Your responses to this survey will be used in formulating the views that the Society will put to the MoJ; it is, therefore very important that we get as many as possible from the entire expert community. To this end, the survey is open to members and non-members alike. It is also essential to hear from experts who do little, or even no, legally aided work so that we can know what makes it so unattractive.

As a token of the Society’s thanks, every expert who responds will be sent recent figures estimating the levels of fees charged by Experts, comparing them with those charged by solicitors and barristers. These will include ranges paid for legally aided and privately funded work in both civil and criminal cases.

To be of most help in influencing MoJ policy, please, send your response by Thursday, November 12th 2009

Important: when completing the form

  1. To prevent false skewing of the results, anonymous forms cannot be included; for non-members this means the inclusion of an e-mail address.
  2. n/a means "not answered" not "not applicable"; please, select an answer rather than n/a - it will greatly increase the clarity and power of the statistics.
  3. "Other Medical" means medically qualified people; "Other" is for anyone not specified in the previous 8 options and no-one else should give a Description, which should be brief, preferably one word.
  4. The entire survey is concerned only with legally aided work; please, be careful to avoid mixing eg by assuming "Civil" to mean "non-aided".
Name:
Membership: Member
Non-Member, my email address is
Area of Expertise:

General medical practice
Orthopaedics
Paediatrics
Psychiatry
Other medical
Psychology
Social science
RTA investigation
Other

How much of your work is legally aided (%)
  0   1-25   26-50   51-75   76-100  
 
If you answered 0, please, answer Section 2 and then go straight to 'Submit' at Section 4; please, do not answer Section 3. If you answered anything other than 0, please, skip Section 2 and go straight to Section 3.
   
Section 2
This section seeks to establish whether those not now doing any legally aided work either did but stopped because of the poor pay or never did because of the poor pay. If you answer Yes to the first option, you can only answer the second, not the third. If you answer No to the first option, you can only answer the third, not the second.
Have you previously done legally aided work?
  Yes No n/a
If you have, was your cessation influenced by the poor remuneration?
  Yes No n/a
If you haven't, is that because of the poor remuneration?
  Yes No n/a
Please go to section 4
   
Section 3
If you completed Section 2, do not answer this section but go to Section 4
How is your legally aided work spread (%)?
Criminal
 0   1-25   26-50   51-75   76-100  
Family
 0   1-25   26-50   51-75   76-100  
Civil
 0   1-25   26-50   51-75   76-100  
   
What fees do you charge for writing reports in legally aided cases (£/hour)?
Criminal
 50-75   76-100   101-150  
151-200   >200  
Family
 50-75   76-100   101-150  
151-200   >200  
Civil
 50-75   76-100   101-150  
151-200   >200  
   
What fees do you charge for court appearances in legally aided cases (£/day)?
Criminal
 300-450   451/600   601-800  
801-1100   >1100  
Family
 300-450   451/600   601-800  
801-1100   >1100  
Civil
 300-450   451/600   601-800  
801-1100   >1100  
   
By how much do you discount your fees for legally aided work (%)?
  0   1-10    11-20   >20  
   
Would you be willing to undertake legally aided work if your fees were restricted to £87 ± £3 per hour (report) or £423 ± £16 per day (court attendance)?
  Yes No n/a
   
If not, would you be willing to inform the Ministry of Justice and/or Legal Services Commission?
 

Now
Before introduction
After introduction

 

Section 4

That completes the questionnaire; please press this button to send your response to the Society.
Thank you very much for helping the Society in this way