The Legal Aid Agency is calling on those interested in becoming independent experts to help oversee its assessments of the quality of legal advice from legally aided practitioners. 

The three-person panel of peer review experts will be responsible for training, validating and quality managing peer reviewers across criminal and civil legal aid. Currently peer reviewed legal categories are crime, family, housing immigration & asylum and mental health.

The experts will be expected to work for an average of 10 hours per month though some periods may be busier than others.

The tender for the provision of peer review independent experts is expected to launch in November this year with the contracts to run for five years starting in early 2026.

Prior to the tender launch, the LAA will be conducting ‘market engagement’ on its requirements for the service. The feedback at the sessions will help share the future service, the LAA said.

Read more

The peer review scheme is the LAA’s principal method for quality assessment of legal advice provided by legal aid practitioners. Under the scheme, legal practitioners review a sample of case files to determine whether the advice given meets professional standards. The expert panel will be responsible for moderating the consistency of ratings, training and supporting peer reviews and providing guidance on disputes between peer reviewers.

The market engagement events will take place on 3 and 4 September 2025. Both sessions will be held remotely and those interested can register their interest.