By Catherine Baksi


The failure of the Legal Services Commission (LSC)'s e-business service will cost £2.68 million to resolve, the body admitted this week.



One eminent solicitor said the huge cost of rectifying the project could have funded police station advice for 10,000 people.



LSC Online was launched on 5 November 2007 to enable firms to submit their fee claims electronically via the internet, but was suspended two weeks later due to technical problems. The system was set up in partnership with IT providers Oracle and Steria.



The LSC revealed the cost of repairing the system in response to a Freedom of Information request submitted by solicitor Andrew Keogh, a partner at national firm Tuckers.



The commission said there was no single reason for the difficulties, but the IT designed to support the new fee schemes brought in last year was complex.



It added: 'The need to support the introduction of the new fee schemes resulted in a very challenging timeframe within which the supplier management system (of which LSC Online is a part) was to be delivered.'



The LSC put the system's initial poor performance down to an unexpectedly high usage. It also sought to put some of the blame on to solicitors: 'Another contributory factor... was that it quickly became apparent that many users were unsure of how to use the system, and were entering inaccurate and invalid data that led to submissions being rejected.'



Keogh said: 'Evidence is mounting that the LSC is not only incapable of managing the changes underway, but is actually harming the legal aid fund.'



Rodney Warren, director of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, said: 'The LSC admits that its own timetable for change is too great for it to cope with.



'The figure cited by the LSC does not include the costs to the law firms in terms of administration. But even on its own figures you could have funded another 10,000 people being advised at the police station.'