INTERACTIVE: LSC and north London practice iron out finer points of scheme

The Legal Services Commission (LSC) has entered into talks with innovative north London firm Scott-Moncrieff Harbour & Sinclair with a view to piloting an on-line interactive auditing initiative.

The firm - which already has a case management system enabling its fee-earners to work from home via an Intranet and allowing for on-line supervision and file review - devised the scheme following its 'appalling' experience of the audit process, which involves locating and forwarding large numbers of files.

'It is very arduous and extraordinarily inefficient,' said partner Lucy Scott-Moncrieff.

'I have asked [the LSC] whether there was some way of developing our case management system so that, under tightly controlled conditions, they could have access to the files on-line.'

The interactive element will come in as auditors will be able to e-mail queries to solicitors in the firm if something appears to be unreasonable or missing from the file.

'An interactive process would mean that at the end of the audit the only issues would be the real issues, not just mistakes or misunderstandings,' Ms Scott-Moncrieff predicted.

'It would also mean that the LSC can audit their own auditors better because as they are looking over our shoulders, the LSC would be looking over theirs.'

Ms Scott-Moncrieff will shortly have further meetings with the LSC to iron out the finer points of the project, and envisaged that it could be rolled out if it proved a success.

Legal Aid Practitioners Group director Richard Miller agreed that on-line audits would be a welcome development for firms with the relevant data on their systems.

'If the LSC does manage to develop the system successfully, it may encourage other firms to make greater use of IT so as to take advantage of this facility,' he suggested.

Scott-Moncrieff Harbour & Sinclair is a largely virtual practice where the 27 fee-earners mostly work from home as self-employed consultants, keeping 70% of the profit costs they generate.

In a further extension of its on-line capability, Ms Scott-Moncrieff plans to set up a connection with an out-of-London advice centre in a deprived area so that the advisers and their clients can have direct access to her firm's lawyers via Web cameras.

Meanwhile, the LSC has re-launched its Community Legal Service Web site: www.justask.org.uk, with the aim of making it more accessible to those who find it hard to access traditional legal services.

New features include simpler and speedier navigation from the homepage and an eligibility calculator.

LSC chief executive Clare Dodgson said: 'The new site is more user-friendly and its new features will be of real use to people seeking help'.

Paula Rohan