Since the summer of 2025, ATC member companies working for solicitors on Legal Aid cases have faced unprecedented financial hardship caused by a major cyber-attack on the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) that led to a serious data breach, the shutdown of its digital systems, and widespread disruption on payments that lasts to this day.

In this ATC brief, we update you on our advocacy efforts and give you concrete advice towards next steps to recover payments from your solicitor clients without damaging your relationship with them.

Responses to our advocacy efforts

As suppliers to Legal Aid solicitors, many language service companies have suffered from continued late and non-payments of invoices for work carried out. In many cases, solicitors have struggled, relying on insufficient contingency funding from the Legal Aid Agency.

To seek answers and call for remedies, the ATC reached out to a number of Government agencies:

• Legal Aid Agency
• Ministry of Justice
• Cabinet Office
• Small Business Commissioner
• Department for Business & Trade

The Legal Aid Agency’s Chief Executive Jane Harbottle and the Minister for Courts and Legal Services, Sarah Sackman KC MP, responded to recognise the significant disruption caused by the criminal attack on LAA’s online services on the entire legal aid supply chain, and to outline LAA’s system restoration, contingency arrangements, and to set out the LAA’s position on third-party suppliers.

We also met with the Small Business Commissioner and the Cabinet Office’s Head of Public Procurement Review to discuss the situation and understand the options available for language service companies serving solicitors.

System restoration and contingency arrangements

Since legal aid systems were taken down in May 2025, significant progress has now been made towards restoring online legal aid services.

The compromised LAA Portal – the identity management system used by providers to connect to LAA digital systems  – has been successfully replaced and providers are being onboarded. This will allow users to access LAA services as they are stood back up.

Crime billing schemes have been operating normally from early June. Criminal legal aid performance in relation to both applications and Crown Court claims has been well controlled throughout to maintain timely decisions and payments.

For civil cases, contingency arrangements remain in place. This includes the average payment scheme. As the timetable for civil restoration is subject to the requisite testing criteria being met it is not possible to give precise dates for full restoration of services.

As services are switched back on contingency measures, including the on-going average payment scheme, will remain in place for limited periods, which will be communicated to legal providers in advance, to support them through the transition period. Individual contingency arrangements are being stood down as and when the LAA is satisfied that they are no longer required and providers are being kept closely updated.

In the past weeks, LAA has made significant progress towards the restoration of civil services. Phased onboarding of providers onto Civil Apply and Client and Cost Management System (CCMS), commenced at the end of November. With a deliberately phased approach, subject to satisfactory onboarding, functionality will be expanded and access scaled gradually.

LAA Position on third-party experts and service providers

The LAA’s contractual relationship lies with the solicitor suppliers working on legal aid cases, and, as such, it does not contract with third party experts or service providers such as language service companies whose contractual relationship is with the instructing solicitors.

What this unfortunately of course means is that the solicitors remain responsible for agreeing payment and ensuring remuneration is made to their suppliers. As such, there are no contingency measures aimed directly at providing support to third parties who may be instructed in legal aid cases.

The Average Payment for Civil Representation scheme is in place, which solicitor clients will have access to. The guidance for the scheme contains reassurances that solicitors can use any payment made under the scheme in any way which is necessary, including to pay third parties such as expert service providers.

What you can do next to get paid

Because of the tiered contractual relationship, language service companies are reliant on their solicitor clients for payment.

Both the LAA Chief Executive and the Small Business Commissioner encourage ATC members to talk to their solicitor clients about the escalation process available within the contingency schemes, and to explore coming up with arrangements in relation to payment for delivered and on-going services.

If a legal aid provider requires money outside the average contingency payment offered, the LAA has an escalation process in place to allow a payment of a more specific figure. Talk to your solicitor clients to ensure that they are aware of this mechanism.

Charging interest

The Small Business Commissioner’s Office provides help and support with unpaid invoices. Amongst these, charging late fees is a useful option.

It is your right to charge interest and compensation on any invoices which have been paid late or have not been paid within your agreed payment terms.

The interest you can charge is ‘statutory interest’ which is 8% plus the Bank of England base rate for business-to-business transactions. The Small Business Commissioner’s Interest Calculator allows you to calculate any interest owed, which may have the effect of nudging your invoices further up the solicitor’s urgency list.

Note, however, that you cannot claim statutory interest if there’s a different rate of interest in a contract.

Legal action or complaint

The Office of the Small Business Commissioner also offers advice on taking legal action for late payments.

If you run a small business and have an unresolved payment dispute with a large client, you also have the option to lodge a complaint to the Small Business Commissioner.

Before taking legal action or lodging a complaint, explore the Small Business Commissioner’s guidance on legal action for late payments:

https://www.smallbusinesscommissioner.gov.uk/help-and-guidance/all-advice/legal-action-for-late-payments/