We were the first firm of solicitors in Kent to qualify for the Legal Services Commission's (LSC) Serious Fraud Panel.  The qualification procedures were extremely rigorous – for good reason.  There were less than 200 qualifying firms in England and Wales.  Most were to be found in the cities and large towns.  

That rigorous procedure was abandoned by the LSC in favour of a more general panel of firms who are authorised to carry out such work for public funded cases.  There are many firms now authorised to carry out this work notwithstanding they did not qualify under the 'old rules'.

For clients the advantage of public funding is that there is no means test for the grant of a certificate in crown court work.  The court is only concerned with the 'interests of justice' test.  If the case is a serious fraud case then the test will be satisfied.  

Clients who have the benefit of a public funding certificate in the Crown Court must complete a means form that will be used in certain cases at the conclusion of proceedings to allow the judge to assess the appropriate figure that should be ordered against the defendant for a 'recovery of defence costs' order.  Such orders are normally expected in the event of a finding of guilt or if there were steps taken in the case that caused additional cost to be incurred for no good reason.

To see more about this subject see our further notes.