Legal Aid - Payment on Account

12/01/2026
Knowledge

How To

Legal aid firms can claim for interim payments for long running cases, to recoup some of their outlay and costs. These are known as payments on account.

When the case has concluded and the final bill is raised, this must be processed to the ledger to include all items, regardless of previously bills (POA’s), and then to have an adjustment assigned to account for payments already received.

POA’s can only be claimed three months after the initial LA Order Date. Further POA’s claims must be at least three months after the initial and subsequent POA’s. A maximum of four POA’s can be claimed in any twelve month period.

Civil Legal Aid

Legal Help (Immigration cases), are not covered by POA, as at this stage we have no LA Order No.
Controlled Work, are not covered by POA, as at this stage we have no LA Order No.
Licensed Work (only covers POA)

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All payments on account for licenced work are via the CCMS portal. There is no paper equivalent.

When the POA option is selected, the user is presented with a form that lists all of the unbilled time and cost recovery items. The user can select which ones they wish to include in the interim payment (POA).

Once items have been selected the user will click a Payment on Account button which will collate the totals of the items, grouped by type (time, disbursements) and display them in an invoice form.

Time Entries / Fixed Fee items by Type:

Time/Fixed Fee entries excluded Advocacy (FAS) are amalgamated.
Advocacy (FAS) totals are reported in as individual line entry. Family Advocate Scheme items.

Disbursements:

Disbursement entries excluded Experts fees are amalgamated.
Experts Fees are reported as individual line entries.

Counsel:

Note: Counsel Fees are the responsibility to the Counsel to claim costs. These are not part of the time, fee, and disbursements that get included in POA’s. If there are any present on the matter these will be excluded from the listing of items to avoid being selected in error.

Payment on Account Posting Process

On the Time & Fees window, select Payment on Account from the New Invoice drop down menu.
The New Payment on Account window will open.
Clicking Select Items shows the user the items which are to be included in this POA.
As the items are selected the total value on the form is updated to reflect the values of the selected items.
Once the use has selected the relevant items clicking the OK button will then amalgamate all items into the appropriate individual line items and display this on the POA invoice form.
Clicking Save & Close will create a Fixed Fee transaction on the Time & Fees ledger for the amount.

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The selected time, fee, and disbursement entries will NOT be set as billed and do not get allocated the invoice number.
Opening the Payment on Account Fixed Fee item will allow the user to see the items that are included in the Fee.

Processing the Final Invoice

When the final invoice is generated, users will select the appropriate invoice in the normal way. There will be a check to collate any Payments on Account that have previously been posted against the matter.

Creating a final invoice for all unbilled entries will bring all the POA amounts into the invoice deducting the POA total from the total of the invoice, leaving the remaining balance.

When posted to the ledger all items will be marked as billed with the invoice number. The final invoice is only posted to the ledger for the outstanding amount remaining.

Payments on Account of Profit Costs

For profit costs you must wait 3 months from the grant of the certificate and you can claim four amounts within a 12 month period. You will still only get paid up to 80% of these costs. In CCMS you’ll enter 100% of the profit costs incurred to date and the system will calculate the reduction before payment.

Last Modified Date

12/01/2026 2:01 am

Title

Legal Aid - Payment on Account

URL Name

Legal-Aid-Payment-on-Account

Resolution