The Legal Aid Agency recently issued an update in respect of travel expenses and there are some important points to bear in mind when submitting your claims for payment.
Part of this update dealt with the idea of local travel expenses. It stated ‘Travel expenses are only normally claimable where the travel is in excess of 10 miles each way’. The Costs Assessment Guidance deals with travel expenses at 3.11-3.17 and the above statement is linked to the following paragraph:
3.15 Paragraph 5.22(3) of the Practice Direction to Rule 47.6 CPR (Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2013) states that local travelling expenses incurred by providers will not be allowed on assessment. What is ‘local’ will be a matter in the discretion of the court dealing with the case at the relevant time, but as a general rule, will be taken to mean within a radius of 10 miles from that court. However, courts will generally take a flexible approach and may allow travel expenses where local public transport is known to be poor. Any claim for travel expenses within this 10 miles radius should be supported by a file note giving the particular reasons for the claim. Where justifiable under paragraph 3.14 above, the costs of taxi travel are claimable within the 10 mile radius.
This is of course nothing new, however by specifically drawing attention to the guidance we felt that it may signal the start of a more strict application of this section. Since this update was posted we have become aware of some instances where travelling expenses have been automatically removed upon assessment when the journey has been less than 10 miles each way. We will continue to monitor the position however we would recommend that justification is added to the file note for all mileage claims of 20 miles or less.
Unfortunately it doesn’t end there. The LAA also stated in the same update that when assessing mileage claims they use the Court Finder website and justification must be provided for any discrepancy between the mileage claimed and the figure on the website. If you go onto the court finder website and enter the postcode of your office it will then list the nearest Courts and the distance in miles. One thing to watch out for though is that the site takes the distance ‘as the crow flies’ rather than by the shortest available route by road and therefore there will always be a discrepancy. We are led to believe that caseworkers are also encouraged to check the distance using a route planner where there is a discrepancy however you may wish to pre-empt the issue in either the claim form or on the file note and be ready to challenge any reductions made on assessment!
Wednesday 2nd April 2014