Criminal law solicitors this week voiced concerns over the Legal Services Commission’s track record on IT projects, as it began a phased national rollout of its new electronic criminal billing and claim forms.

The new eForms are part of the LSC’s delivery transformation programme, designed to reduce costs and speed up and simplify its processes.

Rodney Warren, director of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, said: ‘Every time I hear the word e-anything from the LSC it makes me feel like someone is pinching me and it causes me pain.

‘The LSC has been piloting the eForms, but its track record is so poor when it comes to IT initiatives that I struggle to have confidence in the successful roll out,’ he added.

Greg Powell, an executive officer of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association, said: ‘If it works it will be a step forward, but all history tells us to be very cautious about believing that anything the LSC does will be either simple or work.’Powell added that he hoped the scheme would not suffer the same problems as the recent criminal contract tender process, which had been ‘a nightmare’.

Phil Lambert, executive director for business support at the LSC, said: ‘I am extremely mindful that previous LSC technology-led implementations have caused difficulties to our providers, and eForms cannot be allowed to give us all a similar headache once again.’