Follow guidance to avoid rejections and nil-assessments
New civil and crime forms are being introduced for 1 April 2013 to reflect:
The content of all civil and crime forms (except Form L17) will be different.
To reflect the cessation of the Community Legal Service (CLS) and Criminal Defence Service (CDS) brands on 31 March, we have changed the prefix on all our new forms:
You should use the old forms up to 1 April and the new forms on and after 1 April.
The date signature is critical:
We will accept old forms ? signed before 1 April ? up to 30 April in all instances except applications for civil representation which we will accept up to 5pm on 8 April.
You cannot mix the current and new versions of the forms for the same application.
Rejects will cause delays for you and your client.
A rejected application will have to be resubmitted. This could mean that:
For Civil and Crime Controlled Work (excluding Police Station Advice and Assistance), if you use the old form from 1 April, your claim will be ?nil-assessed?.
The submission of the wrong form for Crown Court matters may affect the date you are covered for work.