The Legal Aid Agency online portal could be back up and running in September – four months after it was taken down due to a cyber-attack, the Gazette understands.

Lawyers have endured weeks of disruption after the portal, which they need to submit applications and get paid, was taken offline in May, almost a month after the cyber-attack was discovered.

The Gazette understands that legal aid providers were informed this week that a new portal is being built and will go live in September. The portal will be called ‘Signing into Legal Aid Services’ (SILAS).

Providers will need to submit a spreadsheet by the end of August with details of everyone in the firm who will need access to the system. While this will not be an issue for solicitors, one practitioner told the Gazette the LAA also wants third parties, such as costs draftspeople, to provide emails with the law firm’s domain. This could be problematic given costs draftspeople work with multiple firms.

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Last week justice minister Sarah Sackman was told the fallout from the cyber-attack could be the final straw for practitioners. Family lawyer Jenny Beck, director of Beck Fitzgerald, said her staff were doing at least two hours’ extra work per case that they were unable to claim payment for.

In a sign of how complex the system is, the LAA’s list of contingency measures currently covers more than 50 issues. The Ministry of Justice has been approached for comment.