Having just completed another audit by the Legal Aid Agency I am again reminded of the importance of a very thorough accountability process when assessing whether members of the public qualify for free family mediation.

I keep reminding myself that as mediators we are acting on behalf of the LAA when assessing whether someone is eligible for legal aid. Therefore, it is essential that we hold each person accountable for providing the right financial evidence at the very first Intake meeting with them.

This starts with making it very clear in the first telephone calls and letter/emails to the client which docs they need to bring to the first intake meeting and, importantly the consequences if they do not. Get an acknowledgement of safe receipt of this correspondence.

My business practice is to explain on the telephone and in my letter before they arrive that they must either prove that they qualify for legal aid at that first meeting with evidence or, I will need to take payment for that meeting and my card machine will be ready. I always start the meeting by explaining what we will cover in the meeting and then go through the Means7 with them.

If they can produce sufficient financial evidence within 7 days of the first meeting I reimburse payment for the first meeting.

You may come under all sorts of pressure and hear all manner of reasons why the client does not have the right financial documentation but I recommend that you insist on taking payment because all too often and sadly, the clients have not subsequently provided the necessary evidence and i have spent 2 hours or more travelling and in the meeting with them without any payment.

No business can withstand that and especially at legal aid rates.

The legal aid auditor will give the mediator 28 days to obtain the outstanding financial evidence and then seek to recover any money the legal aid board has paid the mediator. At that point, where is the incentive for the client to provide you with the outstanding information when the mediation might have been months ago?

You may have to ‘kiss good buy’ to £100s of pounds. So, my message again from this and previous audits is, be very careful, thorough and hold your clients accountable and responsible for providing you with the necessary evidence before you do any work.