The president of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association has written to justice minister Jonathan Djanogly (pictured) asking him to ‘directly assist’ in tackling the ‘appalling delay’ in legal aid applications and payments.

Since the Legal Services Commission (LSC) centralized the administration of legal aid forms for London to Havering earlier this year, the backlog in processing applications has risen to 3,000.

The LSC’s target is that applications should be processed in 48 hours. But in a letter to Djanogly, LCCSA president Malcolm Duxbury said the process is currently taking 15 working days.

This ‘appalling delay’ is having ‘enormous consequences’ said Duxbury. He reported defendants being left unrepresented and solicitors being forced to ask for adjournments.

He said cases are frequently being listed two or three times without legal aid applications being determined, and cases are being sent to the Crown court with defendants in custody facing serious charges without legal aid.

In respect of payments under the graduated litigator fee, Duxbury said that, despite an eight-week target turnaround time, there are 5,000-6,000 cases outstanding for payment assessment beyond that time.

An LSC spokesman said delays in processing legal aid forms have been caused by a high volume of applications, and resourcing and IT issues.

The LSC is working with HM Courts and Tribunal Service to clear the backlog. The commission has deployed extra resources and is prioritizing urgent and Crown court cases. It aims to be back within its target processing times by the end of July.

‘These issues should not result in clients going unrepresented, and we have not been made aware of any instances where this is the case,’ he added.

In relation to payment delays, he said the LSC had identified a problem caused by the failure of the computer system to show that a case has moved from the magistrates’ to the Crown court. It aims to clear this backlog within 10 weeks.