The Ministry of Justice and Legal Services Commission have today announced the fee changes for Crown court legal aid work.

The government has decided not to implement the 17.9% cut proposed to the advocates’ graduated fees. Instead there will be a staged reduction over three years of 4.5% a year (a total reduction of 13.5 %).

Cases due to last between 40 and 60 days will be paid under the advocates’ graduated fee scheme (AGFS) rather than the more expensive very high cost case scheme.

The first of the staged fee reductions will come into effect on 27 April, and the extension of the AGFS to 60-day cases will come into force on 14 July.

As the litigators’ graduated fee scheme was introduced relatively recently and is subject to review, the government has decided not to extend it to cover cases with trial estimates of 60 days at this stage.

The MoJ said the reforms, which were outlined in the two consultation papers on the AGFS and VHCC arrangements, are designed to reduce costs, increase value for money and ‘sustain’ the legal aid budget.

It said that focusing more of the savings on the transfer of VHCC cases to the AGFS will reduce the impact of fee cuts on more junior advocates, who are less likely to be undertaking the more complex cases.

The MoJ said the staged fee reduction would give advocates more time to adjust to the changes.