Court duty solicitor - Fees for guilty pleas in respect of each plea of guilty on summary complaint, a fee of £578.61 will be payable.

This is based on the fee which is payable under Schedule 1 of the Criminal Fixed Payment Regulations where professional services are provided in relation to proceedings in the sheriff court and those proceedings are brought in a Court specified in schedule 2 of the fixed payment regulations.

An enhanced payment will be paid of £578.61 to reflect the additional work and preparation which will be required for dealing with COP26 cases.

The enhanced payment is paid on the same basis as the core fee in paragraph 1 of Schedule 1B of the Criminal Fixed Payment Regulations. It includes all work up to and including:

• any diet at which a plea of guilty is made and accepted or plea in mitigation is made
• the first 30 minutes of conducting a proof in mitigation, or a proof of a victim statement, other than in the circumstances where paragraph 3 below applies
• a first or second diet of deferred sentence; and
• advising, giving an opinion and taking final instructions on the prospects of an appeal against conviction, sentence, other disposal or acquittal, together with any subsequent or additional work other than that specified in paragraphs 8, 8A, 9 and 10 of paragraph 1 of Schedule 1B.

A payment  of £108.16 will be payable for the representation in court, per appearance, at a third and subsequent deferred sentence hearing, where the hearing relates to one or more than one complaint.

A new COP26 Duty Claims form has been created. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the payments we could not make changes to Legal Aid Online to allow these claims to be submitted using that system.

COP26 Duty Claims form (PDF): https://www.slab.org.uk/app/uploads/2021/10/COP26-form.pdf

You should email the COP26 Duty claim form to us at: paperaccounts@slab.org.uk