FJC Consultation on the impact of experts' fees & LSC limits

Malek Wan Daud of Garden Court Chambers has contacted me inviting contributions to a consultation exercise on LSC fees for experts.  You may be aware that he was appointed to the Family Justice Council last April.


The FJC are back in discussions with the LSC about the new rates of pay for experts and are trying to gather some evidence based information to help the discussions.

There have been many anecdotes about the LSCs reduction of experts fees limited to £95 (London) and £130 (out of London) causing delays in cases. The FJC are asking for evidence from practitioners to inform the discussions with the MOJ/LSC on the topic. If you have any experience of delay being caused by this reduction in fees, Malek would really like to hear about it. Some factual examples of difficulties in finding an expert to do the work for the said amount (citing the area of expertise and how it was resolved), where there have been refusals of prior authority, where the case has had to go back to court on a number of times to resolve the issue or in fact any other example of it causing delay to a case would be very helpful. It would be very helpful if you could cite the case number and if possible the LSC area office that made the relevant decision.

He would be very grateful if you could send him any examples by 29.03.12 to his email address: malekwd@gclaw.co.uk